The Back-Up
by Boyz
Summary: Still not used to his new form, The Doctor accidentally takes an average girl with him on some of his adventures instead of Clara. How will he respond to Clara leaving him? Can this new companion bring out the good of this new Doctor? Can she even handle traveling with a mad man? Will she abandon all that was in her life to travel with her Doctor? (12/OC, rated T just in case)
1. Chapter 1

She was normal, well, as normal as anyone can be. Monday through Friday, she woke up early and drove to the warehouse where she worked and in the evening she would eat a small dinner and fall asleep. Nothing special or out of the ordinary in her life. Naomi enjoyed the routine that has become her life. That was until one fateful Saturday morning.

The day started off completely normal; she rolled out of bed around 8:30 and quickly rearranged the sheets and pillows. Sheepishly, she wondered out of her bedroom and took small steps into the kitchen and living room. Using the remote, Naomi clicked on the news channel and began to brew a fresh pot of coffee. She let out a yawn just as she turned to her toaster for blueberry bagels. Her bedroom door suddenly opened and she heard heavy steps walk onto the tile floor.

"Yes, two large coffees. Black. As fast as you can."

This voice was fast paced and held some sort of authority. Naomi didn't recognize it at all. Slowly, almost in disbelief, she spun on her heels and faced the man who owned the voice. He was tall and a bit on the older side of the scale. His short greying hair matched his bold eyebrows. He wore a simple black suit with only one button fastened, his shoes coordinated with his suit and his attitude with the slight sour expression on his face.

Naomi opened her mouth to say something, but then shut it again; unsure of what to question first. When she didn't move or say anything, the man rolled his eyes and took a few steps towards her.

"My coffee. Aren't you going to get it?" he almost hissed at her.

"Ho-" she took a defensive step backwards and began to form her line of questions. "Where did you come from?"

"Outside. Now, about the coffee-"

"How?" she demanded a better explanation.

"Through the door-"

"That's impossible. That's not even the front door." Naomi pointed at her bedroom.

The man followed her finger and walked back. Placing his hands on the frame, he looked inside her room. While he was distracted, Naomi grabbed a frying pan from her bottom cabinet and walked over to the strange man. She held the pan behind her back and inched her way closer to him.

"Oh." he muttered, a little disappointment in his voice. "You call that a bedroom?"

Naomi had lifted the pan to her shoulder right as the man turned back to her. She slightly startled him; she saw him flinch in surprise. "What're you planning to do with that?"

"Uh," Naomi couldn't help but be honest, "I was going to hit you when you weren't looking, but you turned around and-"

As she gave her explanation, the man walked past her and into the living room. He spun around, quickly examining her small apartment. Naomi carefully watched him, unsure of her next move.

"This isn't the coffee shop." He said to himself, but loud enough for Naomi to hear him.

"Of course it isn't!" she dropped the frying pan to her hip and joined the man in the living room. "This is my apartment. On the twelfth floor of the Hot Pit building. How did you come from my room?"

"Your apartment?" his dark eyes met her's again; Naomi still had a firm grasp on the handle. "I don't like it." He said, absolutely disgusted.

Naomi was taken back by his statement. She was tempted to hit him just for insulting her home. "I didn't ask if you liked it," she replied.

He looked back at her, slightly surprised by her reply. Instead of him raising his voice, he took a small step, flipped out his coat and placed his hands in his suit pockets; the inside of his coat was a deep red.

"I think you need to change it."

"I think I don't." The coffee pot was dripping the last of the fresh coffee and emitting a few puffs of steam behind the man. The two of them stared at each other, both unwilling to move or alter expressions. Naomi adjusted her arms to fold over her chest, the frying pan still in her hand. As the coffee pot ceased making the only noise in the apartment, an odd ringing sound erupted from Naomi's bedroom. She knew it was a phone ringing, but it wasn't her cell ringtone or landline.

With a quizzical look, she turned to the small hallway to her bedroom. "What's that?"

"It's for me." The man took long strides past her and quickly entered her bedroom.

"Hey, hey!" she followed him into the hallway. Once she turned the corner into her actual room, that's when she first saw it. The large blue box. It was a telephone police box, or so it said across the top. The man was standing next to the blue box as a small compartment was opened, relieving a phone. "That's the biggest mobile phone I've ever saw," she uttered under her breath. He held the phone to his ear as he leaned on the police box.

"Okay, okay. But do I have time to get that one girl, what's her name, Clara?" he spoke into the phone. Naomi took a step closer as there was an apparent pause in his conversation. Before she could say anything, he spoke again. "Alright. Alright. I'm coming. And don't move." He placed the phone back and closed the small compartment. He turned to her and gave a strange expression to her; she wasn't sure what it was or what it was regarding.

"Well, coffee will have to wait." he told her. He pushed open the right side of the police box to relieve a door. He stormed inside, leaving the door open slightly; either he forgot to close it, or he purposely left it open for her.

"Why are you going in-" she poked her head through the door and saw the last thing she expected to see; a large circular room with a console in the middle. It was softly lit from the buttons and levers on the console and off of the ceiling, that was oddly higher than her own ceiling. It was clearly bigger on the inside. As the man walked around the console that was built into the floor and ceiling, Naomi preoccupied herself with her newest discovery.

She glanced around the outside of the police box, even peeked around to the back of it. Even going as far as placing a hand firmly on the back, to make sure it wasn't an illusion. She circled back around and placed a foot inside the metal flooring, but kept her head out to check around the sides again. Naomi was completely confused and baffled by this mystery; so she quickly stepped entirely inside the police box and thoroughly scanned the room. The walls were curved outward and the ceiling attached to the console had three circular bans revolving in criss-cross directions. One more step, and her fate was sealed.

The man must have done something at the console to cause the door to slam behind her. Naomi turned around, frightened and took a few more defensive steps back. Frying pan still in hand, she faced the strange man and stormed to him.

"Open the door!" she demanded, apparently her presence was completely ignored by the man.

"How did you get in here?" he saw her as soon as she approached the console.

Stunned by the man's response, Naomi scowled at him. "You left the door open! Now open it! Let me out!"

A whoosping noise began to hum all all around the room. The place shook suddenly, the man wobbled and held onto a bar on the console. Naomi wasn't prepared for it and fell entirely on her butt. She lost her grip on the frying pan as she held onto the nearest thing she could grab, an oddly placed armchair. Her short nails dug into the cushion as the shaking continued for a short moment. As fast as it started, the shaking stopped and the humming had ceased as well. Naomi, holding her breath, took a deep breath and centered her body and mind. The room was still in tact, nothing fell and nothing appeared broken. Hair slightly mattered and in her eyes, Naomi was cautious standing up and finding her balance again.

The man had walked over to her without her noticing. She glanced up at him and saw that he was offering a hand for her. A bit weary, she grabbed it and he forced her upright; displaying a hidden strength she would had never guessed he possessed.

"What was that? An earthquake?" she asked.

"Nothing of the sort." he said, in a surprisingly calm tone.

Naomi eyed the man carefully, not fully sure of what had happened or what he meant. She knew one thing for sure, there was definitely more than meets the eye with his grey haired man.

"We aren't in my apartment anymore, are we?"

"No."

Slightly glaring at him now, Naomi placed the frying pan on the armchair and crossed her arms again. "Alright Eyebrows-" she nicknamed him for the first thing that stuck out in her mind when she first saw him, "- what's your name; where are we; and what's going on?"

"You're not asking the right questions," he told her, almost in a mimicking tone. He stepped away from her and walked to the door. "Ask the right questions." He took a short pause and looked at her, up and down. "Red hair." Apparently that was the first thing he had noticed about her. "Think!" he told her. "Think with that little human brain of your's!" He pointed at his head to indicate where the brain was.

Naomi was slightly offended, but she got the strange feeling that she was supposed to keep guessing the questions. She gave it another go.

"Who are you, and what are we doing?" she was uncertain about this questions and was less confident than her previous ones.

"Ahh, those questions." He pointed at her, with a small grin. "But you forgot one. C'mon! Think, Red Hair!" he practically begged her to ask the last question.

"Uh, I don't know!" she quickly stammered out. She racked her brain for another question, but nothing was coming to her.

"A hint." The man said, taking a small step towards her. "Not where. But…" he rolled his hands to insist Naomi to finish the sentence. She said the first thing that came to mind.

"When?" The man's face lit up, but his hand gestures told her that she hadn't quite asked the right question. "When are we?" she felt weird asking such a silly question.

"There it is!" he said, clearly he was getting frustrated by her lack of creative questions. "It's like leading a horse to water and forcing it to drink," he sounded a bit bitter, but relieved that she asked that question.

"How was I supposed to guess that one?" she felt a little offended at his last remark.

"You want answers, or not?" he disregarded her last question, clearly not wanting to play the question game anymore. He waved her closer to the door; she was cautious again, but didn't want to enrage the man anymore. She quickly walked over to him as he began to explain.

"We are in the year 40,083. Right in the heart of a galactic war between the Sontarans and the Rutans." Naomi was getting even more confused but decided not to ask anymore "wrong" questions. She was standing next to him as he finished explaining. He grabbed open the door and pulled it open. Naomi's mouth dropped as she looked out into what appeared to be space. Black space hung around everywhere her eyes fell upon with little white dots scattered across her vision. "What we're doing," he pointed outside of the police box and towards an enormous spherical ship that was drifting right in front of them, "Is sneaking onto that ship and retrieving some precious cargo." Naomi racked her hand through her messy hair, to clearly eye the slowly moving ship. She was speechless.

"I'm The Doctor. Not 'Eyebrows'."


	2. Chapter 2

"Great. Absolutely perfect. Nice job, Red Hair." The Doctor grumbled as the potato-like creatures, that Naomi quickly realized were the Sontarans, were using some sort of beam light to handcuff his wrists behind his back. "You just had to run into a flight of them, didn't you?"

Naomi stood next to him, terrified that such aliens existed. Her hands were being handcuffed as well. She gathered enough wits to snap back at The Doctor. "You didn't tell me that they were trigger happy or couldn't be defeated!"

"It's common knowledge!" he replied.

"Not to me!" She saw The Doctor roll his eyes and sigh loudly. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means we are prisoners of war, because of you!"

"Correction, Doctor," one Sontaran stepped forward and removed his helmet, "She is a prisoner of war. You are a spoil of war."

"Spoil?" Naomi scoffed at the thought of The Doctor being valuable.

He gave her a stern glare, but said nothing to her. "What do you plan to do with me?"

"That is none of your concern." The Sontaran turned to the one standing guard next to Naomi, "Take her to the cell. We will deal with The Doctor."

Her guard slightly nodded and turned to her. She glared at her capturer, resulting in a small thrust of his futuristic gun to get her to start walking. Naomi took easy steps and glanced back at The Doctor. He still had a sour expression on his face while her face softened to one of an apology. She noticed his face eased up a little as well, right before the Sontaran pushed her around a corner. He lead her down some simple hallways and to the lower decks where the light was getting more dim and the temperature was getting lower. She tried to remember the way they had come, but that was proving to be incredibly difficult considering the situation was beginning to sink in.

Ten minutes. That's all it took for this strange man, The Doctor, to show up in her house, and eventually whisk her away to some intergalactic war between two alien races. And the first she does? Get captured. She was a real survivor alright. The Sontaran gave her one last push into a corner cell at the end of a short, dark tunnel. Once she was clearly in, he placed his hand on a panel and a light closed the remaining wall; now she was trapped. He left her alone in that cell, hands still handcuffed.

"Damn," she muttered, all hope escaping her voice. She carefully slumped to the floor next to a metal wall and attempted to relax herself. Chills ran through her body as she realized she was only wearing her pajamas. Sweat pants and a tank top. No shoes, no jacket; just her bare skin against cool metal. She shuttered and bundled herself to keep warm.

"This is ridiculous," she muttered to herself. "What am I doing here? How did I get here? I don't belong here." A long sigh followed her hopeless thoughts; she was able to see her breath.

She examined her cell; nothing was in there. Over head, she looked toward the ceiling; it seemed like a small air duct was there. Naomi quickly determined that her head was too big to fit inside it, so it was prove fruitless to even try. But something caught her eye; it was a small blinking light inside the shaft.

Naomi decided to investigate, but first she would have to wiggle her handcuffed wrists to the front of her body. Carefully, she slid her hands down her back and wiggled her hips to maneuver her hands around her butt. The rest was easy, just slipping it under her knees and around her feet. She popped and rolled her shoulders in case she didn't crack them when she moved them.

Jumping to her feet, Naomi walked to the air shaft and concluded that there definitely something inside of there. She stood on her tip-toes and used the tips of her fingers to gently lift the cover; that was strange, it wasn't secure or bolted down in anyway. But she didn't pay too much attention to that. Just barely in her reach, Naomi felt something slender and about the size of a pen. After careful precision, she was able to get the object out. It was odd, about the length of a screwdriver, but it had the blinking light at one end of it. There was one button on it; and of course she pushed it.

With the lighted end pointing upward, making a small buzzing noise, it somehow switched the lights in the tunnel on. The air began to get warmer. She released the button and carefully looked out of her cell; there were no Sontarans to notice this change, unfortunately she was all alone. She stepped back to the air shaft and felt around for any other magical device. Instead of a key to the cell, she found a piece of paper. Pulling it out, she was able to read it in the tunnel light.

"You have one chance. Don't mess it up. That device can work on anything, except wood. Now hurry."

The note sounded like something The Doctor would say to her; but that was impossible. He was captured and taken to a different place. How could he-

Before she could finish her thought, a loud scream echoed down the tunnel and into her ears. Naomi flinched in pain for the agonised scream. She couldn't identify it, but she had to do something. Clicking the button on the device again, she tested her luck at the panel that controlled the light wall. After a few seconds, the wall disappeared. A huge grin spread across her face as she used the device on her handcuffs; again it worked.

"Haha! " she laughed at her new advantage. Without hesitation, and a fully developed plan, Naomi ran out of her cell and down the tunnel.

By the time she reached a floor above the few cells, the screaming had stopped. This floor was lit brightly and seemed to ring constantly of the stomping feet of the Sontarans. Learning from her first mistake, Naomi glanced around corners and hid behind wall panels that stuck out of the wall every few feet. Every time a squad of Sontarans marched by, she would hide and hold her breath. When they moved on, she sneaked down the opposite way. With no shoes she was able to have incredibly quiet steps compared to the loud marching. She would rack her hair back to keep her vision clear and to relax her slightly; it was a way to remind her that this was real and that she had to hurry, for something.

She silently wandered the hallways and hid from the squads. After reaching a dead end, the horrible scream filled the hallway; this time it was closer. Quickly, she ran down the way and rounded a different corner. She nearly ran into another squad; only their backs were turned to her. Whatever was screaming was just beyond this small squad of Sontarans. Using the device, as her only option, she pointed it at them and clicked the button. The buzzing noise caused the four Sontarans to drop their large guns and hold onto their helmets. Two dropped to their knees and another rammed his head against the wall. Naomi took his advantage and quietly ran passed them. Luck must have been on her side as none of them noticed her weave through them and run down the hallway.

At the end was a large door, different than the others. Two circle windows were placed at eye level for the Sontarans. She peered inside and carefully observed. About 20 Sontarans stood at the base of a large podium, while one stood on top, guarding The Doctor. Another Sontaran was on the podium, only his helmet was off and his gun was tucked under his arm. What seemed like a large green jellyfish was strapped to what looked like a dissecting table. She noticed The Doctor was moving his lips; he was talking, but she couldn't hear him.

Because the Sontarans were facing the podium, their backs were to her. However the two Sontarans on the podium were facing her. She would have to distract them if she was going to get inside. Slowly opening the door a crack, Naomi fitted the device inside and pointed it to one of the lights in the far corner. A small click of the button and it exploded.

They were barely fazed by the explosion, but still turned their entire bodies to look at it. Naomi used this and snuck inside, carefully closing the door behind her. She glanced at the podium, The Doctor was grinning at her. She smiled back and quickly hid in the opposite corner. The shadows protected her presence from the Sontarans.

"Simple malfunction of faulty lights. Nothing more," the leader Sontaran stated.

"Then are we quite done here? I already told you I won't help you," The Doctor said.

The one without a helmet turned back to The Doctor. "You will aid us in our war. You will create a time travel device for us." He turned to the jellyfish creature on the table, "Or this Rutan will die." He held up a strange surgical device and pointed it at the Rutan. Even from the distance Naomi saw the Rutan quiver. "Final time I will say this, Doctor. Aid us to our victory, or she dies."

She stuck to the wall to inch herself closer to the podium and to remain hidden from the small army of Sontarans. As she got closer, The Doctor began to speak.

"Many of Rutans have died in this war already. What's one more?"

"You would allow me to kill this Rutan?"

By this time, Naomi was practically next to the tiny stage. She glanced around for something she could use to get both The Doctor and Rutan free.

"Oh yeah. How many have you killed? While you march forwards into battle. Never turning to relieve your weak spot at the back of your neck."

"No such weakness exists!"

"Sure it does! Just at the base of your neck. Your feeding tube. Just one good shot there and you're down. Or if a simple malfunction were to occur-"

"Silence!" the Sontaran demanded. Naomi listened carefully, realizing he was talking directly to her. She positioned herself carefully, still in the shadows but extremely close to the Sontaran without a helmet. "No such weak spot exists!"

Naomi figured this was the best time to perform a "simple malfunction." She quickly pointed the device and held down the button. The buzzing sound came and all of the Sontarans heard it. Only the one without a helmet actually got hit by a "simple malfunction."

While the helmetless Sontaran dropped to his knees, The Doctor used all of his might to shove his guard off of the podium and onto a few unsuspecting Sontarans. To continue the pandemonium, Naomi pointed the device to the ceiling. All of the lights exploded and the room went completely black. She raced to the stage and easily found The Doctor.

"The cuffs! Get them off!"

She used the device and released him from his light beam handcuffs. He grabbed the device from her and used it to unlock the straps on the Rutan. "Grab her and follow me!"

Naomi could barely see where The Doctor had gone. But she did as she was told. Carefully and entirely unsure of how to properly hold a Rutan, she picked the Rutan up and slipped through the crowd of blind Sontarans.


	3. Chapter 3

Naomi, holding the Rutan close to her chest, was running down the hallway and turned corner the same corner as The Doctor. She found him pacing between a few options of doors. She closed the gap between them and attempted to steady her breath while slightly adjusting the Rutan in her arms. He was muttering to himself under his breath and too quiet for her hear anything. Her attention switched from The Doctor to the Rutan in her arms; there was no face and no tangible bone to feel. She couldn't tell if the Rutan was even alive at all.

"Please don't be dead," she whispered to her.

Right on cue, the Rutan lifted up a tentacle and slowly raised it to Naomi's face. Instinctively, she moved her face back; however, the Rutan thrusted the limb under her ear and along her jaw line. For some reason, this scared her.

"Doctor," she looked at him, and for a split second, he locked eyes with her. She could tell from his face that he was just as surprised as she was terrified. Suddenly, the tentacle contracted and a sharp pain traveled through the Rutan and transferred to Naomi. Her body stiffened and her muscles froze.

The last thing she remembered was seeing The Doctor rushing to them and shouting, "No. No! Don't do that!"

This was the tricky part, it felt as though she had woken up, but she wasn't quite awake. It looked at though she was in purgatory; pure whiteness and nothingness surrounded her. Her body was moving in slow motion however it felt as though her mind was racing, sending out multiple signals to raise her hand to her face. Her movements were blurry and it was hard to distinguish what was her actual hand and what wasn't. She tried to call out, but nothing escaped from her sealed mouth. Her initial thought was what had happened to the Rutan and The Doctor.

"I like that," she heard a young girl's voice spoke to her. Naomi looked around; still nothing to be found. "Strange, but heartwarming," the voice continued. "You have only met The Doctor a short time ago and yet you worry about his well-being and mine before your own. I was unaware that humans were capable of such feelings after such a short meeting duration."

Naomi slowly turned around but still couldn't find the owner of the young girl voice.

"However, it isn't uncommon for humans to be as closed-minded as yourself."

"Hey!" Naomi snapped inside her mind; she was able to hear it echo out into her purgatory state.

"Anger, one sure way to make a creature open its mind," a small giggle haunted her ears, just how The Doctor would mock her. "I know who you will be," the girl said calmly.

"Will be?" she pondered in her brain; causing it to echo outward again.

"Yes, your recent actions with The Doctor have already put you on the path to what you will become. I can see it."

"What is it?"

A small sign had echoed from wherever, "I wish I could show you; but your closed-mine will not let me."

"Why not describe it?" Naomi was intrigued and wanted to know what will become of her.

"Interesting; this seems to be the first time you are considering your future self. You have been worrying about your current status all your life, or the lives of others. This is your first occurrence where you are deeply concerned with your future."

"Thanks for that," Naomi sighed in slight frustration; the voice wasn't necessarily wrong, but she had always lived her life in the "here and now." Maybe that's why she was narrow minded?

Another giggle from the girl, " In any case, the Rutan race has a rule, almost a tradition, about informing any creature of its most likely future self."

"And that is?"

"Using only one phrase; a sentence to completely summarize the future self. Your's is quite difficult."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Oh no, just difficult for me to summarize. Oh, don't I wish you were opened minded so I could show you some glimpses!"

"Isn't there an infinite amount of possible futures though? How can you be sure that telling me what I will become won't alter it?"

"That is even harder to explain. You have already trusted The Doctor with your life twice before this; is it so difficult to trust me?"

"Twice? I didn't know there was a first time."

"When you stepped onto his space ship. Once that door closed, your life path changed completely. And right before you fell under my consciousness, you called out to him; trusting him to help you. There is a rule, tradition rather, for The Doctor as well; whomever steps onto his ship, he protects, however it seems he is having a hard time coping with his new form and will need your aid more than once after this."

Naomi was confused; space ship? he was protecting her? and he had a new form? What did any of that mean? Wasn't he human?

"I don't understand anything you just said," Naomi admitted, a bit frustrated.

"You will, in time."

Sighing with a hint of bitterness, she decided to leave the issue of The Doctor alone and asked the right question. "So, what is my phrase?"

"I thought you would never ask!" the girl giggled. A short pause and a quick clear of the imaginary throat let Naomi knew that her phrase about her future self was coming. "To the world you might be one person, but to one person you might be the world."

She had a short period of time to think about her phrase before her neck and chin began to burn. The invisible fire gnawed at her skin as she silently cried out in pain. She squirmed and tossed her slow moving body around. Fingers clawed at the burning sensation trying to put the flame out. As quickly as it started, she shut her eyes in agony, and when she reopened them, she was back on the Sontaran ship.

A loud scream of torment eluded her lips as Naomi began to scratch at her neck. Quickly, a firm hand covered her mouth as tears rolled down her cheeks in torture.

"Shut up!" she heard The Doctor demand her in a hushed voice. "Just. Shut up!"

Through watery eyes, she saw The Doctor glare at her. They were no longer in the bright, narrow hallway; the three of them were in a cramped space, something that resembled some sort of steam room. Sweat was dripping from The Doctor's thick eyebrows as her own sweat joined her trail of tears. Biting her tongue to stop herself from screaming, Naomi began to calm down, despite the continuous burning sensation on her neck. With intense dark eyes, The Doctor studied her face, almost waiting for her to give a signal that she was done screaming; his hand grip around her mouth.

"Don't talk. Just, shut up," he ordered her, still hushed but less angry. "You need to shut up."

Forcing her eyes to end the tears, Naomi nodded her understanding of what he was telling her; they were hiding from the Sontarans. He kept looking at her with a suspecting glare while he removed his hand away from her mouth. She took deep breaths to satisfy her urge to cry out in pain. With a careful eye still glaring at her, The Doctor slowly turned his attention to the Rutan. Naomi, slightly scared of The Doctor's hard stare at her, followed his gaze to the third party in their company. She wanted to ask if she was alright, but she feared another snap from The Doctor to keep quiet.

"Injured. Not dead," he stated in a whisper; almost reading her mind. "Won't get better unless we return her to her family. Longer she's away from them, the weaker she becomes."

He turned back to her with that crazy-like suspicious look in his eyes. This also scared Naomi; how was he protecting her when he looked at her like this?

"How did you find us?" he narrowed his eyes at her.

With her chest still heaving, she tried to answer as calmly as she could through the burn, "I heard screams. I followed them and-"

"Screams?" he somehow deepened his mad dog eyes at her, causing her to shudder, "There were no screams."

"I-I swear," Naomi attempted to defend herself, but she was frightened from The Doctor's crazed look. "I heard her scream in agony, and followed it to that room with the podium. She screamed twice."

"Do you see any mouth for her to scream? Hmm? In fact, do you see anyway for her to emit any sound at all?" It began to feel as though he was interrogating her. He was protecting her? Had the Rutan gotten it wrong?

"She screamed, I swear I heard it."

Before their argument could continue, the sound of heavy Sontaran marching began to approach them. Naomi glanced up and noticed, in between steaming pipes, the distant shadows of the potato-people getting closer. "Can't we finish this a different time?" she begged him; hoping he would drop his harsh gaze at her. After a quick moment, The Doctor carefully picked the Rutan up and began to stand up.

"Can you walk? Because I'm not carrying you again."

Again? Oh, well of course; how else would she have gotten here?

Before she answered, The Doctor was already sneaking down the narrow gap between steaming pipes and loose wires. Grinding her teeth, Naomi forced herself to stand and tug after the long strided Doctor. One hand on her neck acting as a small shield, Naomi used her free hand to guide her body around the hot pipes and after The Doctor.

They were silent for a while as they made their second escape from the Sontarans. Naomi fought back the urge to wail in agony and claw at her neck at a desperate attempt to cease the fire. The Doctor led her through a maze of pipes and wire networks, only stopping once to reposition the Rutan in his arms. Naomi blindly followed him, not paying much attention to anything beside her invisible neck burn. Eventually, he found a way through the network of endless loops and turns and found the door. Taking a few seconds to scope the exposed area, he came to the conclusion that it was safe to exit. Still holding onto her neck, Naomi quietly tailed The Doctor out of the pipe works.

Through the door, they appeared to be back in the maze of hallways. The Doctor kept aimlessly walking while Naomi did her best to keep up. After a few sharp turns and long hallways, The Doctor finally settled on using his device to open a door and hide in there. As soon as Naomi was inside, The Doctor clicked his device and closed the door behind her. With the Rutan safely on a counter space, Naomi quickly found a square mirror to examine her burning neck. A long red mark stretched from under her ear and lined her jaw line, just where the Rutan had placed her tentacle. Small holes had pierced her skin and her veins were visible to the surface. Even the cold air touching the wound caused it to ache.

"You'll live," she heard The Doctor said, with a strong hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Rather me die?" she growled at him.

He didn't look up from the Rutan, that she had guessed was unconscious, and continued to speak to her, "Never said that."

"You sure as hell implied it," Naomi was bitter towards him.

"Didn't do that either."

"I heard you! You were disappointed!"

With an exaggerated roll of the eyes, The Doctor looked up at her. Instead of the crazed mad dog look from him, he shrugged his shoulders greatly and held up his hands in defeat. "That's it," he started. "I will not waste my precious time with some incompetent human." He shoved his device into one of his inside coat pockets and gathered the Rutan in his arms. "Don't know why I even bother," was the last thing she heard him mutter under his breath. He began walking to the door.

"Where are you going?" she asked, despite her better instincts to just let him go.

"Away from you."

With that said, The Doctor used his device to open the door. He stormed out of the room, but not before using his device to lock her inside. She swallowed her guilt and remained where she was. She was red in the face and balling her tiny hands in fists. Taking deep breaths through her nose, she turned away from the door and continued to examine her wound around her neck.


	4. Chapter 4

It took about ten minutes before Naomi finally realized that The Doctor had imprisoned her in the room. She began to panic a little, but was only half-heartedly concerned about her new plan of escape. Her attention was always drawn back to her burned neck. She scanned the top layer once more in the mirror then forced herself to lay the mirror flat, so she wouldn't be tempted to look at it anymore. While slowly walking around the edges of the room, Naomi used her hand to memorize where the placement of each hole in her neck; honestly, she was surprised that she wasn't bleeding. She walked the edges of the room and realized that she was in a different cell.

"Damn you Doctor," she muttered, "You are the hardest man to read I've ever met."

Obviously she wasn't leaving through the door and there wasn't a secret passage in the walls, so what better to do than to rummage the drawers? The first set of drawers had nothing promising, a few strange surgical instruments and straps. The next row of drawers contained vials and tubes. In the third set, she opened the middle drawer and what she found made her roll her eyes. The device The Doctor had taken with him was lying in the drawer with another note.

"This is getting a bit ridiculous. I saw that in your hand when you locked me in here!" Begrudgingly, she picked up the device with the white blinking light and read the new note.

"Sonic screwdriver. By now, you know what it does. Find me."

"You have a bit of explanation to give me when I do find you," she snickered at the note, as if talking to The Doctor himself. Slamming the drawer shut, she faced the door and clicked the screwdriver on; the door quickly opened. She scoffed at the tricks The Doctor were pulling to help her; just who did he think he was? And how did he get the sonic screwdriver back inside of here with the door locked? Naomi was tempted to get him a good smack when she found him.

Glancing down both ends of the hallway, Naomi was already stuck at trying to locate The Doctor. Which way did he go? She wasn't even too sure which way they had come from. "Great. Absolutely perfect," she mimicked The Doctor. She decided to go down the left way, something was just drawing her that way. Constantly sticking to the shadows, Naomi kept one hand over her neck and rubbed it every time she came to a fork in the halls. "Jesus, this is getting repetitive," she muttered out loud.

"Silence! I heard one of them!"

Naomi looked over her shoulder to see a squad of Sontarans turn a corner and spot her. "Over there! Prisoner, prepare for battle!" one of them shouted at her.

"Oh damn," she broke out in a run away from them. They quickly began shooting their large guns at her; after a few shots flew past her, she heard one of them complaining of unsportsmanship. While taking a few looks to evaluate that she was gaining some distance from them, she picked up some speed. Thanking God for giving her longer legs than the Sontarans, she rounded a corner and became dead in the face.

She grinded to a sudden halt as she entered a large room that could be under the category of the Bridge. Panels with large levers and buttons scattered over them with lights flashing gave Naomi the impression that she made a wrong turn. A few helmetless Sontarans were working the controls; they all stopped at once and turned to her. Naomi huffed out heavy breaths as she gave a small shrug of shoulders, admitting defeat. "Never turning left again," she was panting from the running.

The Sontarans pointed their guns at her and gave her the same instruction, "Prepare to be defeated by the mighty of the Sontaran Empire!"

The squad behind her caught up to her and surrounding her and blocking her only chance of escape. They said the same phrase, which irritated her a little with the lack of creativity. With the sonic screwdriver in her right hand, she carefully assessed the situation, concluding that she had about a few precious second before getting shot down. A desperate thought randomly popped inside her head; it was definitely worth a shot.

"Wait! Wait, wait, wait!" she cried out to her firing squad. "You don't want to kill your only leverage to get The Doctor to work with you, do you?"

"You are not the Rutan!" one of the Sontarans without a helmet said.

"But I am! But I am," she quickly slipped the sonic screwdriver in her pocket, "You see this?" she moved her hair to reveal the burn marking and tiny holes in her neck, "I was dying in my original body; I needed a new host!" Naomi was making this out of thin air; praying to whomever to let her plan work, "I used my tentacle to switch minds with this human. That's why The Doctor left me, thinking I would be safer on my own. You wouldn't suspect me in a human body."

The Sontarans began to look at each other, muttering to one another as they dissected her story. Naomi darted her eyes around the room, hoping to find a suitable place to hide in case her plan didn't work.

"We will need proof," the Sontaran closest to her said. He lowered his large gun and stepped next to her. She eyed him carefully as he pulled something off of his belt, it reminded Naomi of a magnifying glass. He held it close to the burnt markings on her neck; Naomi tried her best to not flinch or give anything away. It beeped once and the Sontaran examined the results. "Hmm, there are traces of the enemy's DNA on your neck. It is inconclusive." He looked up to her while putting his magnifying glass away. "Another test! Reveal to us your plan to attempt to overthrow the mighty Sontaran Empire."

Naomi swallowed her fear and straightened her posture, faking her confidence. "They didn't tell me anything about their war strategy, but," she quickly added before they could ready their guns at her, "But, I can tell you that it's a tradition for us to choose only certain people to reveal their futures using one phrase."

"How can that be? How can we know that is true?"

"A demonstration. Perform this trick upon me."

Well, damn, Naomi thought. This will be a bit tricky. She lifted her hand and awkwardly placed it on top of his head and closed her eyes.

"Do you feel it?" she began to hum lightly.

"I feel nothing. Hurry up or prepare to be destroyed."

"Wait, I see it, I see, the phrase. It's telling me that a great victory is near," she hoped that would stroke their ego enough to let her live. She removed her hand and gave a small nod. "Yep, a great victory is near."

"Ha! That much is obvious! We are the mighty Sontaran Empire!" the surrounding Sontarans gave a short but obnoxiously loud chat that sounded like "Son-tan-ha!"

"However," the leader gave a hand gesture and the rest of them stopped chatting, "I believe that you are the enemy, simply in a different body. Guard her!" The squad from the hallway completely blocked the exit and the helmet one returned to their previous positions at the controls. The leader walked over to the front of the console and picked up a tiny microphone, after flipping a switch.

"This is Commander Flit, the Triumph. This is a warning for The Doctor; I know you are still on my ship. Surround yourself, and we will not kill the young Rutan girl."

Naomi was lost of what to do next; so she improvised. Fishing the screwdriver out of her pocket, she held it high in the air and clicked the button. An annoying shrieking noise emitted from such a small device and caused the Sontarans' to drop their guns and hold their heads in pain. She quickly grabbed the tiny microphone from Flit and gave her own message to The Doctor.

"Doctor, save the Rutan! Her life is more valuable than mine! Get her back to her family, make sure she's safe-" Flit snatched the microphone from Naomi and raised his gun at her. She backed away and saw that the rest of the Sontarans were doing the same, making a small death circle around her. "Oh damn."

"Make your peace, human girl!" Flit commanded of her.

Naomi covered her eyes and held her breath, bracing for her inevitable death. She only hoped it would be a short death.

Suddenly, she heard a whoosping noise, it was somehow familiar. Thinking she was imagining it, she tensed her muscles, still waiting for the first Sontaran to shoot her. It never came. Peeking out from behind her arms, Naomi was no longer on the bridge of the Sontaran ship, but facing a blue door. The walls were much bigger and the ground was of a harder and colder material. The whoosping noise continued for a moment, confusing Naomi. This all seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't place where she had seen this before.

"Going to stand there all day?"

She snapped out of her delusion and realized where she was. With mixed emotions, Naomi turned and face The Doctor, who was pulling levers and turning knobs. He glanced at her for a moment before walking around the center console and flipping a few switches.

Naomi took slow steps towards the busy Doctor, quietly studying him.

"I thought you didn't want to waste your time on me?" was the first question she asked him.

"Out of all the things you could ask, you start with that one? I could've left you there. I didn't have to get you."

"You're right," she agreed with him, realizing her terrible mood towards him. "I'm sorry. Thank you, for not leaving me."

He looked up at her, giving another indistinguishable expression. She guessed it was his way of saying "your welcome."

"So, not human?"

"Not human."

"This is a space ship?"

"She has a name. T.A.R.D.I.S."

"And how do you explain this?" Naomi held out the sonic screwdriver; The Doctor looked at it, apparently he was expecting this. "I saw you leave that room with it, yet I found it in a drawer after you left. And I found another one, in the cell I was sent to. Both with notes."

"Oh," he said, grabbing the screwdriver from her. "Copies. From my original. To rescue you without doing anything. Not quite as powerful as mine, but worked enough for you."

"But how did you-"

"Time traveller." he answered her question before she could finish.

Naomi nodded as the new information began to sink in. "So, you're a time traveling alien, who rescues other aliens?"

"If you want to be vague about it," he snickered at her, "But I do much more than rescue."

"Is the Rutan alright?"

"Safe, with her family. Just like you said."

"You heard that?"

He rolled his dark eyes at her line of questions. "Yes. How else did I find you?" He shook his head to slightly mock her. "Quite finished?"

Naomi thought about her predicament; she was on an alien spaceship, that was a girl and had a name, with a time traveling alien who does more than just rescue other aliens. She just had the adventure of a lifetime. Who was going to believe her crazy story?

"Yeah, I think that covers all the bases," she slowly nodded her head, accepting everything easier than she expected to.

"My turn," The Doctor walked over to her and crossed his arms, he had a sour expression. "Your name."

She had forgot to introduce herself before running off of the T.A.R.D.I.S. and getting captured by the Sontarans. "Naomi."

"Mhmm, I like Red Hair better."

"You asked for my name; that's it."

"Couldn't have picked a better name?"

"I'm not changing my name."

"Next question." Apparently The Doctor was done talking about her name, "Want to go home?"

"Home? I haven't thought about my home once," she admitted; she wasn't sure if that was a bad thing or not.

That answer seemed to satisfy The Doctor. He nodded once and continued his line of questions. Before he asked the next one, he sighed a little and eased his sour face away to be replaced with one of worry.

"Am I a good man?"

This one caught Naomi off guard; she was expecting more questions about her. It took her a minute to gather the correct words, fearing that she could easily give off the wrong impression if she wasn't careful.

"I see it like this; good men wonder if they are good, while bad men wouldn't consider it." The two of them locked eyes, Naomi could tell that wasn't the answer he was looking for. Before he could rephrase the question or simply give up like he did back in the room on the Sontaran ship, she quickly added. "I know you saved that girl, and still saved me at least three times; only a good man would do that."

He carefully studied her; she knew he was looking for some sort of dishonesty, but she was being truthful. She would have died three different times if he didn't help her in some way. And for that, she was eternally grateful.

"For what it's worth, I think you're a good man," Naomi shrugged her shoulders, when she noticed that The Doctor was looking away from her. She had a nagging feeling that she didn't quite convince him. But she also felt that she shouldn't push the issue.

"What now?" she tried to break the tension but changing the subject.

"I take you back." The Doctor was completely sober and seemed to be in his normal mood; well, the mood Naomi had figured was his default.

"What am I supposed to do after all of that?"

"Live your life."

This time Naomi was prepared for the sudden shaking and held onto the railing tighter. Oddly enough, Naomi didn't think she could go back to her routine life.

"This is your stop. 90 seconds after we left."

Naomi walked over to the blue doors and hesitated opening it. Her normal life would never be the same again. Not after The Doctor.

Without her noticing, he walked over and held out her frying pan. She turned and gave a warm smile; chuckling as she grabbed the handle. "Can't forget this," she joked.

He said nothing. Naomi began to feel as though she overstayed her welcome on the T.A.R.D.I.S. so she pulled open the door to reveal her dull bedroom. He was right, it wasn't impressive. She stepped through the threshold and turned back around; one last question that she just had to ask.

"Will I see you again?"

He tried to hide taking a deep breath, but her keen eyes saw him inhale and exhale slowly. He gave a little shrug and said, "Only if you want to."

She smiled at the strange man, "Of course."


	5. Chapter 5

The weeks that followed her adventure with The Doctor proved to be regular, predictable, and just plain boring. She was working harder at the warehouse and even got in touch with some old friends; secretly hoping that one of them would come up with some ridiculous idea. They never did. Eventually, she went back to her old, introverted ways, bottling up emotions and staying at her home. One night, she was almost convinced that The Doctor had been a crazy dream or hyperactive hallucination. There was a small part of her that wished it wasn't. Facing the sad reality, she sighed loudly as she began to hand wash her clothes; her washer had broken the week before. Her bathroom was converted into a makeshift laundromat with bottles of detergent on the counter and stain lifting soap on the floor next to her. She used her hands to scrub together different parts of a shirt to get a mysterious stain out. It looked like barbeque sauce; she hated BBQ sauce. Using the faucet in the bathtub, Naomi rinsed the shirt and twisted it to get a good portion of the warm water out.

While picking up another shirt, she heard a weird noise sound from the laundry room. Curiousity peaked her interest as she pushed herself off of her sore knees and decided to investigate. Poking her head out of the door, she saw the laundry light turned on and the washer making small shakes; it was randomly fixed. Narrowing her eyes, she muttered, "How the hell?"

"Don't act so surprised," a heavily Scottish accented voice replied to her quiet question. Her head automatically followed the sound and saw The Doctor standing in her living room; this time with two large, hot drinks in his hand.

She couldn't believe her eyes, he was real. That insane adventure had actually occurred; she had time traveled! Naomi gave a large grin.

"You look so primitive; hand washing clothes doesn't necessarily help either."

Naomi bound over into the living room, clearly happy that she wasn't losing her mind. By the time she was within arm's distance, she realized what he had said to her. Her jaw dropped in shock.

"Primitive?" she clarified. The Doctor looked at her, head to toe; probably ignoring her.

"Your legs changed color?"

She dropped her head and realized that she was wearing basketball shorts, revealing her softly toned skin. "I'm wearing shorts, instead of pants," she said, almost as if that was obvious. He vaguely narrowed his eyes in disbelief but didn't persist the issue.

"I need your help," he placed his arm on her back and led her toward the T.A.R.D.I.S. "Need to go now."

"Woah! Hold up," she grounded her feet and pushed back, "I want to wear actual clothes this time; not my lounge-around stuff."

"No time," The Doctor tried to push her move, instead she spun off of his hand and headed back into her room.

"Liar; you have a time machine. You can spare three minutes so I can put on a decent outfit."

She heard The Doctor sigh as she pictured him rolling his harsh eyes at her.

"Hurry up! Haven't got all day!"

Naomi wiggled into a comfortable pair of jeans, pulled down a darker short sleeve shirt and topped it off with a neutral colored cardigan. Slipping into a pair of Converses, she ran through her bedroom door back to her time traveling friend, two large coffees in hand.

"You're wearing that?"

She took slight offense to that statement. "Yes," Naomi said confidently, "Something wrong?"

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but then he closed it and lightly shook his head. "Whatever. We leave. Now." He snapped his fingers with his free hand and the door to the T.A.R.D.I.S. swung open. With a small pep in her step, Naomi hurried into the blue box; excited to be going on another adventure with The Doctor.

"Here's your coffee," he handed her the two large hot drinks and walked past her and began flipping switches at the console.

"What? I didn't-"

"You sent me for coffee." He said, trying to jog her memory.

"No, you demanded coffee from me last time. I didn't sent you for anything."

He narrowed his dark eyes at her; Naomi placed the coffee on the chair and stood next to him. The Doctor gave her a quizzical look, almost as if he remembered but didn't want to admit it.

"But if I sent you for lunch, would you get it?"

"No," he pulled a lever down and the TARDIS and the time machine shook a little. This time Naomi was prepared for the shake and held onto the console so she wouldn't fall again.

"Hurry now. No time to lose." He had a quickened pace as he rounded the center and back out the door. Naomi, nearly a head shorter than him, particularly had to run to keep up with him. He opened the door to reveal what resembled a storage room with odd looking gadgets. He used his longer legs to lead her a short way before they walked through a metal door; not at all similar to the Sontaran fleet doors. This room had a large tube shape in the middle, with wires hooked up to it and a small control room behind a window. Naomi quietly took in the area as they began to walk past a few people in black, padded uniforms.

"That was quick," a female with medium black hair said to another man wearing more padding. Naomi noticed that the people wearing black had guns, almost like futuristic assault rifles.

"This is gun girl. She's got a gun, and she's a girl." he gestured to the girl who spoke first. "This is a sort of boss one. The same one as before?" The Doctor asked the bearded man, however he kept walking with a purpose in front of the people with guns.

"Yes," the bearded one said, following in line behind Naomi and The Doctor.

"He's probably her uncle, but I may have made that up to pass the time. This is Naomi, not my assistant, she's, er some other word."

"Companion?" she guessed the word he was looking for.

"No. My carer. She cares so I don't have to." They locked eyes as she gave him a cheeky smile; she wasn't too sure what he meant by that, but she rather be a "carer" than a "companion."

They turned down a narrow hallway where two guards with guns were standing watch. The Doctor stepped in between them and through the door, Naomi followed, eager to find out what needed guarding. In the center of a small, dark room, a large salt-shaker was sitting. Little half dots were popping in organized lines from the top to the bottom; a long pole stuck out on the top and had a bright blue light shine. What looked like a whisk and some sort of plunger seemed like little mechanical arms for the salt-shaker.

"Doctor?" it spoke with a monotone voice.

"Hello again." The Doctor took a cautious step closer, flaring his coat and sliding his hands in his pants. Naomi was watching The Doctor and did the took the same precautions.

"Will you help me? Will you?"

"A Dalek so damaged, it's turned good. Morality as malfunction."

Dalek? Naomi didn't know what The Doctor was talking about.

"How do I resist? Daleks must die. Daleks must die!"

"What's a Dalek? Why is morality a malfunction?" Naomi aimed the question to The Doctor, but the bearded man behind her answered.

"A merciless killing machine. Created for the sole purpose to exterminate all other forms of life besides its own. Something's clearly wrong if this one is going against its basic protocol." By the dead seriousness in the man voice and the grim look in his eyes, Naomi realized that this salt-shaker was able to eliminate them at any time. Her eyes widened and she swallowed her apparent fear just enough to ask another question.

"So, what do we do with a moral Dalek? Get inside it's head?"

"Mhmm," The Doctor kept his eyes on the Dalek.

"How do we get into a killing machine's head?"

"That wasn't a metaphor."


	6. Chapter 6

While Naomi was still curiously examining the cortex vault, or the "more than memory banks" that The Doctor described, she heard the soldier named Ross use one of his futuristic weapons to shoot something to the lower levels.

"No! No, no, no, no, no! Stop, stop, stop! Stop, you idiot!" her attention was drawn back to the small group of people as The Doctor began shouting at Ross. He rushed over to Ross, who was about to fire another shot, when Journey stepped between the two.

"We need a way down, the only way-" Journey, or gun girl, began to defend Ross; but The Doctor wasn't having anything to do with that.

"This is a Dalek, not a machine! It's a perfect analogue of a living being and you just hurt it!" The Doctor backed away from the two soldiers and Naomi followed, starting to get scared. "So, what's going to happen now?" he asked, but she got the feeling that he already knew the answer.

Then it clicked in her mind; living being plus something hurting it from the inside equals, "Oh God." she muttered.

"What is it?" Gretchen, the third and final soldier asked, pointing her rifle around.

"Antibodies?" Naomi guessed, fearful for the answer.

The Doctor knelt down next to the wall and carefully eyed the circular hallway. "Dalek antibodies," he corrected her.

Within a minute, a little metal ball floated around and seemed to become fixated on Ross. Naomi held her breath as The Doctor barked orders at everyone. "Nobody move! Any attempt to help him, or attack those things, will identify you as a secondary source of infection. Stay still!"

She did as she was told and remained as still as she could, trying to minimize her heavy breathing and calm her racing heart. The antibodies began scanning Ross, hovering around him and twitching their little heads all around him.

"But the Dalek wants us in here," Gretchen said, eyeing the floating antibodies that were slowly surrounding Ross.

"Can you control YOUR antibodies?" The Doctor asked harshly to prove a point. He turned back to the shaking soldier.

"Ross, stay calm, we're going to get you outta this," Journey confirmed to him.

The Doctor began to fish around inside one of his pockets, "Can you?" Naomi gave a quiet question; losing hope to save their friend every second that ticked by. The Doctor pulled something small out and tossed it to Ross.

"Ross, swallow that!"

"What is it?" his hand was shaking terribly.

"Trust me!" The Doctor told him. Ross popped the thing into his mouth and swallowed whatever it was. He seemed to be a bit more relaxed, but Naomi could tell that he was still scared.

"Now what?" Ross whispered. However, his attention was drawn away from The Doctor and back to one of the floating antibodies.

Suddenly, the one closest to his face shoot a blue beam of light at him. Naomi flinched as Ross cried out in agony. Wherever the beam hit him, it caused that section to disappear. His screams of pain echoed through the hallway as the buzzing from the antibodies continued to disintegrate him.

"Ross!" Journey shouted his name.

"Jesus!" Naomi took a step back, frightened by the scene she just witnessed. "What's it doing?"

"The hoovering," The Doctor answered, calm in tone. One of the antibodies left the others and began floating down the other side of the hallway. The Doctor lifted up his sonic screwdriver, "Gotcha!" the tip was pointing at the single antibody.

"What did you give him?" Gretchen asked, watching The Doctor closely.

"Oh, just a spare power cell. I can track the radiation signature! I need to know where they dump the bodies."

"I thought you were saving him!" Naomi gasped at the cold-heartedness of The Doctor.

"He was dead already!" He looked coldly at her, then back at his screwdriver. "I was saving us! Follow me and run!" He took a step then realized that Naomi was transfixed, staring back that the spot where Ross had been standing. She wanted to run, but couldn't bring herself to. The Doctor grabbed her by the wrist, relatively hard to snap her out of her moment of paralysis, and shouted, "Run!" again. With The Doctor pulling her out of shock, Naomi ran down the hallway after The Doctor, leaving Journey and Gretchen between the antibodies and them.

She was on his heels the entire way, hugging a tight corner and under a thick coil. In the ground in front of them was a large circular hole that reminded Naomi of a manhole back in her city. The Doctor's screwdriver was pointing at the hole.

"They've dumped him in there- organic refuse disposal. We need to get in there!"

"What? Why?" Naomi said, after hearing the buzzing of the antibodies approaching, she shivered.

"They won't give up til we're there! I'd rather go in alive than dead!"

The buzzing was getting closer, so Journey and Gretchen began to fire a few warning shots. "But where does it go?"

"Away from here! Now in! In! In!" he gave her a forceful push and Naomi lost her footing and fell into the hole. She leaned her back against the wall to slightly slow herself down as she fell deeper. She let out a small gasped as she slid down the pile line and into a swamp of green water. Some parts of the water had thick clumps fused together, a handful of which was covering her hands and cardigan. She heard more screams as another person in their company was sliding down the pile. Naomi forced herself out of the way as Journey popped out and fell completely in the sickening water.

Naomi wafted a horrible smell to her nose, making her cringe and helplessly raise her arms in defeat. Gretchen was next from the pile, sliding aimlessly down and into the swamp of disgusting water. Lastly, The Doctor emerged from the makeshift slide and landed completely in the swamp next to Naomi. He gasped heavily for a breath of air as he forced to keep his head above the green water.

"What is this stuff?" Journey sounded as though she was going to throw up. Naomi prayed that she didn't.

After a few quick breaths, The Doctor answered, "People." He began to stand up as he continued, "The Daleks need protein. Occasionally, they harvest from their victims. This is a feeding tube."

"Is Ross in here?" Journey held up a globe of thick water and let it drip through her fingers, unsure of what to make of the situation.

"Yeah, top layer, if you want to say a few words." Journey did not like that answer; she grabbed The Doctor by his jacket and forced him into a corner; she looked ready to punch him in the face.

"A man has just died, you will not talk like that!" she demanded of him. The Doctor saw her make a move towards them, but he shook his head, telling her with his eyes to stay back; Naomi knew that if she intervened, it would only make things worse.

"A lot of people have died. Everything in here is dead, and do you know why that's good?" He asked her, failing at calming her down.

"Nothing is good about it!" she told him, tightening her grip on his jacket.

"Nothing is alive in here, so, logically, this is the weakest spot in the Dalek's internal security." Naomi could follow his reasoning, but the means he used to get them here were extreme. "Nobody guards the dead." Journey huffed and pushed The Doctor in the corner, leaving him and taking a moment to think without him in her face. "Mortuaries and larders- always the easiest to break out of."

"Oh, I've lived a life," Journey muttered to herself; obviously furious at The Doctor.

"Tell Uncle Stupid that we're in." he advised her. Journey took a moment to glare at The Doctor, still covered in the swampy water of people, then turned away to report back to her uncle. Gretchen took the liberty to explore potential ways out, using her flashlight to examine down a few tunnels.

Naomi was left alone with her thoughts for a moment; she had witnessed death for the first time. She didn't know how to handle it. Given, she held no emotional attachment to Ross, but the echoes of his screams kept replaying in her ears. Her eyes were wide as she relived the last few seconds of his life, seeing that terrified look on his face as that blue beam ripped him into shreds; and how he had trusted The Doctor to help him and he didn't. How could she trust this man when he so carelessly used Ross to help himself? Had she made a horrible decision to go along with him for another adventure? For the first time in her short travels with The Doctor, she had no idea who he was and she questioned why she ever walked into the TARDIS two weeks ago. Why was she here? So he could risk her life to save his own?

She didn't realize that The Doctor was watching her, studying her faint eye movements and shaky breath. He sighed and narrowed the gap between them. "What are you thinking?" he asked, almost under breath so Journey and Gretchen wouldn't hear him.

Snapping out of her frightened thoughts, she looked at him, "I'm scared." she pieced together; it wasn't a lie, just a generalized over statement of her emotions.

"Of what?" She opened her mouth to say anything, anything but the truth, but The Doctor waved a hand at her. "Don't lie to me. I can read you humans so easily."

This strange sense of confidence washed over her again, "Then you should already know." she told him.

He looked at her with uncertainty in his eyes; Naomi couldn't tell what he was trying to tell her with his dark eyes. "I want you to say it."

Something inside her told her not to say it; that if she did, it would absolutely destroy this man. That, if she vocalized it, it would ultimately be the downfall of this man. She thought back to what the Rutan had told her in their adventure two weeks ago; that he protects anyone who steps onto his TARDIS. She clung onto that thought and even used her fingers to feel the thin scar across her jaw line from the Rutan. Taking a deep breath, she erased the tears from her eyes and looked directly into his. "No; because you can't read me that easily."

He looked at her, almost determined to continue this interrogation, but his eyes changed, ever so slightly. She saw it for a quick second before The Doctor turned away from her. She got the sense that he was defeated by her, but she also figured that he wasn't the type of man to just drop topics like this. He stepped away from her, but she sighed and answered him.

"Death." She said it louder than she expected, gathering Journey and Gretchen's attention to her. The Doctor glared at her slightly; checking if she was lying to him. "I'm afraid of death," she explained. "The absolute, permanent end to life; to everything. And the unknown that lays beyond."

The Doctor straightened his posture as he came to the conclusion that she was being honest. He seemed to have approved of that answer; probably revealed that she didn't admit that he was the source of her fear. Naomi took a giant leap of faith all because of what the Rutan had told her. The scar under her chin remained her of the Rutan's voice and what she had told her; and that was the only thing driving Naomi to stand by her Doctor.

From that point onward, she realized that people would die along The Doctor's travels; this was just a sour truth that she would just have to live with if she wanted to have more marvelous adventures with him. She would never gets used to the sight of death; however she knew he would be there for her.


	7. Chapter 7

The party of four climbed through a tight bolt hole, or a hole for bolts. The Doctor led the way through the decontamination tube, Naomi felt the heat radiating off of the nearby walls as she had to crouch to prevent her head from hitting the short ceiling. As they walked down the tube, a sudden crackling noise chirped up. Naomi looked back at Journey, who was fiddling with something in her black armour. "What's that noise?" she asked the soldier.

"Are you wearing a Geiger counter?"

"Standard battle equipment," Gretchen answered as one by one they climbed from the tube and into a strange room. The Doctor lent Naomi a hand to steady her on her feet, however he did not offer the same hand to the Gretchen or Journey. The Doctor spun a slow circle around the room until his eyes landed back at Gretchen.

"That's just low level radiation. But stronger down here for some reason. Gimme!" Gretchen surrendered a blocky device to him. Naomi stepped out of his way as he used a quick pace while holding up the device at face level.

As The Doctor examined the room, Journey was reporting back to "mission control." Naomi couldn't hear what she was saying because, quite frankly, she didn't want to hear. Not long after, The Doctor piped up.

"I've got it! I know what's wrong with Rusty."

"Fantastic," Naomi found herself letting out a sigh of relief, "That's a good thing, right?"

"Well, you know how I said this was the most dangerous place in the universe? I was wrong. It's way more dangerous than that."

"Colonel, we have radiation indicators red-lining in here. The Dalek could be more badly damaged than we thought." Journey updated Mission Control as The Doctor led them down a short passage before explaining.

"Old Rusty here is suffering a trionic radiation leak. It's poisoning the Dalek and us. Just as well we're here."

"Really? Perhaps we should get out while we can." Journey spoke her mind. Naomi had similar feelings, but she knew that they couldn't, Rusty was counting on them. "Why should we trust a Dalek? Why would it change?"

"Good question. Rusty?" The Doctor raised his voice to speak to the Dalek. "What changed you?"

"I saw beauty." Rusty answered.

"You saw what?" The Doctor asked, almost surprised.

"In silence and the cold. I saw worlds burning."

"That's not beauty. That's destruction." Journey corrected.

"I saw more."

"What? What did you see?"

"The birth of a star."

"Stars get born every day. You've seen a million stars born, so what?"

"Daleks have destroyed a million stars."

"Oh, millions and millions. Trust me, I take count." The Doctor jumped up onto a platform and helped Naomi up; again leaving Journey and Gretchen to help themselves.

"And yet, new stars are born. Every time. Resistance is futile."

"Resistance to what?" Naomi asked Rusty.

"Life returns. Life prevails. Resistance is futile."

"So, you saw a star being born. And you learned something. Dalek, do not be lying to me." The Doctor looked above him and noticed metal spokes coming out of a narrow section of the wall; a makeshift ladder. "Come on!" he urged Naomi and the two soldiers. The Doctor began to climb the ladder as Naomi followed him.

"Heading for the Trionic power cells, Colonel." Naomi could hear the Colonel say something about danger levels; but they were already in the most dangerous place in the universe, what's a little radiation to top it off?

They climbed up the ladder and emerged into a large room with a central mainframe and a bright light emitting from the core of it. Naomi gazed up in awe as Journey and Gretchen entered the room.

"We're at the heart of the Dalek." The Doctor explained, looking up to the oddly shaped mainframe. A spark burst from the core, making everyone flinch. Despite the thunderous clap, Naomi still gawked at the heart.

"It's incredible!" Although she was in the most dangerous place in the universe, she could find beauty in it. Just the simple idea of large coils into the core and a mainframe with large sparks occurring intermittently, she realized that she loved seeing alien technology and what other species were capable of.

"Geiger counter's off the scale." Gretchen informed the group.

"Looks like it's about to blow." Journey voiced her concern.

"Good." The Doctor said.

"How is that good?" Journey glared at him.

The Doctor smiled at her, "I like a bit of pressure." He walked around the mainframe and behind a few coils to find a large crack at the base of the mainframe. "Rusty? Can you hear me?"

"Doctor?" he answered back.

"Rusty! We've found the damage. I'm sealing up the breach in your power cell." He pulled out his trusty sonic screwdriver and clicked the button. The familiar buzzing came from the device as The Doctor used both hands to steady the screwdriver to patch up the crack. The metal around the crack began to melt into the crack to seal it up. Naomi, Journey, and Gretchen all watched as The Doctor began to fix Rusty. "I'm sealing up the breach in your power cell. No more radiation poisoning, good as new." Another moment and the crack was completely filled. "There. Job done." He nodded at Naomi.

"Really? That's it?" she asked, a bit confused at the simple end of their mission.

"An anti-climax once in a while is good for my hearts." The Doctor turned and looked up, as if Rusty could see him. "Rusty? How do you feel?" The Dalek didn't answer. "Rusty? Rusty? Rusty-"

"The malfunction is corrected," the Dalek finally spoke back. A small burst of electricity sparked from the top of the core and made the group of four step away from the mainframe. Naomi stood next to the outer wall and watch the core carefully.

"What's happened?" Journey demanded from The Doctor.

"Not entirely sure."

"It's like it's waking up."

"Rusty, come on, talk to me, what's going on?"

"The malfunction is corrected." Rusty answered again. All systems and functioning. Weapons charged."

At the mention of weapons, The Doctor's eyes widened in fear. "Oh, no, no, no," he said, almost disappointed. Naomi looked up at the core, it began to shine brightly; from the shadows and positions of the coils, where Naomi once found beauty now found a terrible omen.

"Exterminate! Exterminate!" Naomi heard the Dalek chant that word as there was a sudden jerk; giving her the impression that the Dalek was moving now.

"No, no, no." The Doctor's voice was calm but clearly frustrated by Rusty.

"Daleks will be victorious! The rebels will be exterminated!"

"Colonel! What's happening out there?" Journey shouted into her communication device. As the Dalek continued to move, Naomi struggled to keep her balance, so she used the newly patched power cell to hold herself up. She saw The Doctor cover his eyes with one of his hands as the Dalek continued to chant his favorite word, "Exterminate."

After the initial shock of the sudden movement ceased, Naomi was able to stand by herself. The Doctor had his arms crossed in obvious anger.

"Doctor, what happened?"

"Do you see?"

Naomi narrowed her eyes at him, contemplating whether or not she should really follow this trail of questions. "See what?"

"Daleks don't turn good. It was just radiation affecting its brain chemistry, nothing more than that. No miracle."

"Let me get this straight, we had a good Dalek, and we made it bad again? That's all we've done?" Journey stepped up to The Doctor again, raising her voice.

"There was never a good Dalek. There was a broken Dalek and we repaired it." He clarified; his tone was harsh and his eyes were dark again.

Naomi saw the defeat in Journey's eyes and the anger in The Doctor's. He was calm on the outside, but she realized that he must be having some type of internal struggle.

"You were supposed to be helping us." Journey bared her teeth at him.

"I gave it a shot. It didn't work out. It's a Dalek, what do you expect?"

"No more talking, you are done!" Journey shouted at The Doctor. She stepped away from him and began to examine the power cells again. "Okay, new objective. We are talking this Dalek down!"

He turned his attention away from Journey to Naomi. The situation was settling in her mind; she was inside a murderous alien whom they just repaired to continue to murder any and everything it's its way. The antibodies already killed Ross, who's to know how the rest of them would die? She was only 24, her life was barely started, and she was going to die. The worst thing about it all was that her older brothers and friends would never know where she went, how she died, or even how she got to travel along side The Doctor. She was scared again, this time for her own death; however she wasn't as terrified as when she witnessed Ross die, maybe she could accept this as her end? But what would happen to her brothers and friends? Would they even notice her absence?

"What's that look for?" he asked her. She locked eyes with her Doctor, and a sudden rage filled her body.

Naomi glared at him and felt the urge to slap him, but with better judgement she didn't. "Have you sentenced us to death? Are we going to die in here? Though, it seems that you're a bit pleased. The Daleks are evil and everything makes sense!" Naomi found herself releasing all her anger out of him, but couldn't find a way to stop herself. She wasn't about to die in some alien's battle armour, God knows how far away from home.

"Daleks are evil, irreversibly so, that's what we just learned!"

"No Doctor! That is not what we learned!"

"We need to place the charges for maximum effect, I'm scanning the architecture." Journey handed Gretchen what looked like grenades. Naomi knew she was running out of time.

"One question."

"No time," Journey began to use a device to examine the mainframe.

Naomi wasn't going to be ignored. "Why did we come here today? What was the point? You thought there was a good Dalek." She directed that question for The Doctor.

"What difference would one good Dalek make? All the difference in the universe, but it's impossible," he answered her, still gloomy.

"Is that a fact? Because where I come from, time travel is impossible; yet-" she raised her arms in a broad exaggeration, "Here we are! In the future, so many light years away from Earth- and how did we get here? In a police telephone box! Doctor, is that what we've learned?!" She walked back to her Doctor, giving him the hint. He narrowed his eyes and eyed her carefully. "What did we learn?" she emphasized the last word and used subtle hand gestures to help The Doctor.

"Do I pay you?" he asked her; Naomi smiled widely as The Doctor finally understood what she meant.

"Maybe you should start," she replied.


	8. Chapter 8

As Journey and Naomi were pulled up to the higher levels, The Doctor took one last glance at Gretchen; she was standing her ground in a corner and shooting the Dalek antibodies. Naomi heard faint gunshots and then the sounds suddenly stopped. Gretchen screamed in agony as Naomi pictured the antibodies using that blue beam to disintegrate her. Journey took a moment to close her eyes and mutter a "thank you;" Naomi only prayed that The Doctor's plan would work. Once they landed on the top level, the first circular hallway they entered from the beginning, Naomi regained her balance and ran down the walkway.

"Are you sure you're going the right way?" Journey followed, with an occasional glance over her shoulder.

"No," she admitted, but just barely loud enough for Journey to hear. "But I'm fairly confident I know what I'm looking for." A few more paces and Naomi found the panel of lights that The Doctor had mentioned when they first arrived. "'Memory banks, but more than that,'" she reminded herself. She knelt down and noticed that a couple of lights were shut off; Journey knelt next to her; keeping an eye out for any antibodies.

"What do you plan to do?" she asked Naomi.

"The Doctor told me to do a clever thing, so I'll start there," Naomi began tapping on the lights, nothing happened. She felt around the edges and noticed that she could pull off the panel. "Help me," she asked Journey. With the combined force, they were able to yank the panel off and place it leaning against a wall. They both looked down the exposed vent.

"How is that supposed to help?!" Journey sounded as though she had lost all hope.

"The Doctor said that this was the memory bank and that some memories are suppressed. Maybe that's why the lights are off? Those are the suppressed memories?"

"That's your theory?"

"Do you have a better one?"

Journey sighed and admitted, "Really wish I had."

"Then, only one thing to do!" Naomi dropped onto her stomach and began to crawl into the vent.

"Are you mad?" Journey called after the red haired girl. "You don't know what's in there!"

"Yes I do; the memory of that star being born," Naomi crawled through the initial entryway and had enough room to use her hands and knees. As she continued her theory, she remembered what The Doctor said to convince Journey and Gretchen back at the core.

"_The Dalek isn't just some angry blob in a Dalekanium tank. If it was, the radiation would have turned it into a raging lunatic."_

"_It IS a raging lunatic, it's a Dalek," Gretchen had protested. _

"_But, for a moment, it wasn't. The radiation allowed it to expand it consciousness, to consider things beyond its natural terms of reference. It became good. That means a good Dalek is possible."_

And if they could make one Dalek good, they could make turn more into conscious creatures. Naomi only wished she was on the right path to unlock that memory of the star being born. She looked around her cramp surroundings and came to the rash conclusion that she was in the cortex; large, light tubes lined the tunnel, one side of the walls were lit up, the other was dark. "Oh damn," Naomi said, completely stumped as to what to do next. She repositioned her hand, unknowingly on a power circuit. The touch of her hand caused something to spark and light up; there was a small backlash of energy, making Naomi fall onto her side inside the tunnel.

"What did you do?" Journey yelled at her. "You got some lights on!" Her tone was excited and eager.

"I don't know, maybe something clever," Naomi had a slight tingling sensation in her hand, but it didn't feel too serious.

"Well, keep going! I think it's working," Journey gave her some encouraging words.

"Easy for you to say," Naomi sighed quietly and made a mental imprint of the power circuit and began to crawl further in.

"You better get a move on, we've got company coming," Journey warned Naomi.

She was able to pick up her pace and found another switched off circuit. With a lavish slap, Naomi thrust her hand on top of the circuit, sending another electrical pulse through her and turning it on. Since she was expecting it, it didn't knock her on her side, but still gave her an odd feeling in her hand. Naomi choose to ignore it and continued down the tunnel of tubes. From the way she came, Naomi began to hear gunshots. She knew the antibodies were close.

"Hurry up! They're coming!" Journey shouted in between firing a few rounds.

"I only see one more!" Naomi began to sprint on her hands and knees to get to the last circuit. She pulled herself within range with the help of one of the smaller tubes and smacked her hand on top of the circuit; sending one last spark of energy through her and down the translucent tubes.

The gunshots stopped and Naomi lifted her head to call down the tunnel, "Journey?"

"You did it, Naomi! You reset the antibodies, it's rebooting" she replied.

With an over exaggerated sigh, Naomi released her held breath and dropped her head again; she was entirely grateful that Journey was still alive, unlike her two comrades. Naomi began to backtrack through the tunnel of tubes until her feet tap onto the metal flooring of the hallway. Naomi pulled herself to her feet long enough for Journey to hug her tightly.

"That was incredible! I can't believe we did it!" Naomi was a bit dizzy from the electrical impulses, but she still returned the hug with weak arms.

"Let's find The Doctor, and get out of this dangerous place," Naomi concluded.

After using the nano controllers, The Doctor, Naomi and Journey all successfully exited the Dalek. They were transported out and landed right next to the Dalek, with tubes still attached to its head. Journey immediately found her uncle and rushed over to him. The Doctor looked sour and watched the remaining Dalek turn to him. Naomi was looking around the room to find multiple Daleks unmoving and irreparable. She felt almost empty, seeing how they could change one Dalek from a monster to a conscious being, why couldn't they have done that to these Daleks? They were all the same after all.

Naomi brought her attention back to the Dalek and The Doctor, who was still sour to the newly changed monster.

"I have transmitted a retreat signal," the Dalek explained in its monotone voice. "The Daleks will believe the humans have initiated the ship's self-destruct."

"What about you, Rusty?" Naomi decided that since this Dalek was good, it deserved a proper name; even if it was given by The Doctor.

"I must go with them."

"Of course you must." The Doctor said in almost a whisper. "You've unfinished work, haven't you?"

"Victory is yours. But it does not please you."

"You looked inside me and you saw hatred. That's not victory." he explained to Rusty. "Victory would have been a good Dalek."

"I am not a good Dalek. YOU are a good Dalek." Rusty took one moment to thoroughly inspect The Doctor and Naomi before turning around and rolling down the hall. Naomi's eyes followed Rusty until he turn down a hallway and disappeared to join the monstrous Daleks.

"Till the next time," The Doctor stated. He walked passed Naomi and opened the door to the examination room.

"Is he leaving? Isn't he going to say goodbye?" Journey looked at Naomi for clarification.

"I think that was it," Naomi guessed. The Doctor looked at her through the window and nodded his head, his quiet command for her to follow. "Yep, that was it. Sorry, got to run."

Naomi quickly followed The Doctor through the examination room, around the corner and into the storage room, where the TARDIS was waiting. Just as Naomi and The Doctor stepped in front of the familiar blue box, Journey appeared behind them and called out.

"Doctor!" both of the time travelers turned and faced the woman. She took a moment to breath before she said, "Take me with you."

Naomi was a bit surprised that she would ask, considering that if he answered yes, she would left her uncle behind. But, wasn't that what she did? She left her two older brothers, twice now, to be whisked away to some far off adventures. She never even thought about her family, or her friends. However, what was the point of worrying about them when she was traveling in a time machine?

The Doctor became serious and locked eyes with Journey. "I think you're probably nice. Underneath it all, I think you're kind and you're definitely brave. I just wish you hadn't been a soldier." He turned away from her and used a key to unlock the TARDIS. The Doctor stepped inside, leaving Journey and Naomi alone for a moment. The soldier gave Naomi a weak smile, as if saying goodbye. Naomi returned it, only she was apologizing. Because Journey was a soldier, she met The Doctor, but now, she couldn't travel with him on glorious adventures, such as into the most dangerous place in the universe. Maybe, one day, The Doctor would change his mind about soldiers. But for now, Naomi simply broke the eye contact and stepped into the police telephone box and gently shut the door.

She walked up to the console full of switches, levers, and buttons to stand next to The Doctor. He was covering his eyes with one hand and sighing loudly. "What's wrong?" she asked him.

He removed his hand and looked at Naomi; his dark eyes seemed lost. "I need something from you. I need the truth." he told her. The Doctor straightened up and walked to a small staircase.

"Of course. The truth about what?" She followed The Doctor with her eyes, watching him pace up a little and sigh again. "Are you scared?"

"No, terrified," he corrected her, without being harsh. She actually detected a hint of concern in his voice.

"Of what?" The Doctor sat on top of the small stairs and placed his head in his hands. Naomi took the few steps and sat next to him.

"The answer to my next question," he looked up at her and continued," Which must be honest and cold and considered, without kindness or restraint." Naomi nodded to show The Doctor that she understood. "Naomi, be my pal and tell me, am I a good man?" He stared at her with his dark, scared eyes. She let out a painful breath and looked away to think for a moment.

How was she supposed to answer that? Of course she thought he was a good man, but there was that moment where he absolutely horrified her after handling Ross' death. Do good men leave such imprints in the mind of his friends? He was damn near heartless when Ross was cornered, but he also changed the worst thing in the universe into an open minded creature. Ross would never get a chance to say his final farewells to his family, or even get a proper burial. Rusty, on the other hand, had been given a second outlet to life; going as far as ending his own brothers' lives because of what The Doctor had done. This was a difficult question, but she said she would answer him, so she will.

"Well," she kept her eyes focused anywhere but The Doctor, "Good men offer help to those who need it. Like Rusty said, your hatred for the Daleks is imminent, and well-placed. Yet, you helped him anyways; you provided him with something worth living, you gave him beauty and a sense of purpose."

He took a moment to study her eyes; she felt like he was reading her mind. Naomi feared he would guess her second train of thought.

"What about Ross?" he asked. "After he died, you were scared of me-"

"I never said-"

"But I could see," he used his finger to point at her face and eyes, "In your eyes. I terrified you. Good men don't do that."

"That isn't fair, that was my first death in my life. I was terrified of everything!" Naomi defended.

"That was not your first death," The Doctor stood up and walked away, only to have Naomi jump up and follow him. "Good men don't strike fear into the heart."

"Not my first death?" Naomi choose to ignore the second part of what he said. "I think I would remember if someone died right in front of me."

The Doctor looked at her for a moment and ceased pacing. "Unless you don't remember." She narrowed her eyes at him, particularly begging him to continue. "Funny how easily your brains can be manipulated into forgetting things. Even, creating replacement memories."

Naomi crossed her arms over her chest and slightly adjusted her stance. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

The Doctor heaved a small sigh and changed his glance from Naomi to the main console. He flipped a switch and turned a knob before answering. "Not yet."

"For what?" Naomi was getting a bit frustrated with The Doctor; but she was determined to convince him that he was a good man.

"Not yet," he reiterated.

Naomi held her stare at him for a moment until he walked around the console, pushing a few buttons and pulling a lever. Finally, she decided to drop the most recent topic and return to his previous question.

"Every good man has his faults, no one is perfect," she clarified as The Doctor walked back into her view.

"Do good men keep secrets?" he asked, apparently trying his luck with her.

She took a second to carefully word her answer, so he couldn't argue with her, "Only to protect his loved ones."

They stared at each other for a few moments before he gave her a smile; she returned it with a confident grin.

"Naomi Winter," he said, "What do you do? Your profession?"

"I'm a supervisor at a surveillance warehouse."

"With a mind like yours, you might want to expand your horizons. You could be in for great things."

"Is that your way of telling me I'm going to be successful?"

"No, just a simple suggestion." Naomi dropped her arms and stood next to her time traveling alien friend. He gestured to a rotating knob on the console, "Would you like the honors?"

She smiled at him and turned the knob till it reach a certain direction. "Like that?"

"We'll find out," he said, sounding pleased. Naomi was relieved that she was able to convince him that he was a good man; even though he could be terrifying at times.

When she stepped out of the TARDIS, The Doctor had explained to her that she didn't turn the knob to the proper time so she was home three hours later. The TARDIS disappeared, causing loose papers to fly around and blowing Naomi's red hair over her eyes. With a huge grin plastered on her face, Naomi kicked off her shoes and opened her bedroom door. She turned to her kitchen so she could make a quick meal before finishing her laundry. When she looked up she saw three people in her living room; two men and a woman.

The woman was sitting in her reclining armchair, one man was sitting on her counters as the final man was looking through her freezer. Naomi recognized all of them; the two men were her older brothers, Donovan and Jonathan. The woman was Jonathan's long time girlfriend, Taylor. What were they doing at her apartment?

"What's going on guys?" Naomi entered the room and grabbed all of their attention. All three of them looked at her with wide eyes and opened mouths.

"Naomi?" Taylor jumped up from the armchair and walked to her. She lightly touched Naomi's arm, as if she couldn't believe her eyes. "Oh my God!" she wrapped her arms around Naomi and held her tightly.

"I thought you didn't like hugs?" Naomi said through rough breaths.

Taylor released her and gave a weak smile.

"Where the hell have you've been?" Donovan demanded from her kitchen. He was her oldest brother, being 30 years old and the "head-of-house," after their mother died and their father abandoned them. He was always wanted to be in control; and by the tone in his voice, Naomi knew she was in for a scalding.

"Here," she simply said, testing her lucky with her furious brother.

"You're full of crap!" Donnie shouted, angrily pointing at her. "We looked for you every where in here, you weren't to be found!"

"Why didn't you bring your phone?!" Jonny piped in for a quick second; he was 28 years old, but still felt the need to chim in the family yelling at Naomi. "We called you, texted you over a fifty times. You're boss is infuriated with you. Jesus, the cops are out looking for you!"

"What? Why? I'm fine," Naomi stepped away from Taylor, partly afraid that she would start yelling at her too.

"How were we supposed to know that?" Donnie raised his voice again. "You disappear; no note, no phone. It was like you weren't even on this planet anymore; just gone!"

She held back a smile; technically, she wasn't on Earth. Honestly, she wasn't sure where she was, besides inside a damaged Dalek. But, they didn't need to know that.

From her bedroom, she heard her phone ring once, notifying her of a new text message. She glanced back as Donnie continued to yell at her.

"That's probably Ashley. Wondering if you're going to answer her this time."

Naomi went back to her room and yank her phone off of the charger. She clicked her phone on from standby and checked her messages. The most recent was a minute ago, from a new contact; The Doctor. It read,

"Sorry. I miscalculated. It's been three days, not hours. Let's leave the piloting to me from now on, shall we?"

Naomi dropped her jaw. Three days? How could that happen? He was supposed to bring her back within the hour she left. But then she remembered that he allowed her to turn the final knob; apparently she didn't turn it far enough. She agreed with The Doctor, he would be the only one piloting the TARDIS. But what was she supposed to tell her family?


	9. Chapter 9

**((Warning, mentions of consumption of alcohol is present, and vulgar language))**

"Hey Ashley, I got your message," Naomi was ambushed with arms surrounding her and holding her close. She let her childhood friend wrap her arms around her and tightened. Naomi readjusted her own arms and gave Ashley a confronting hug.

It was four days since Naomi returned. She was able to clear up the missing person's issue and her family's nagging concern. After working things out at the warehouse, Naomi was able to keep her job, but she was under probation for the next six months; which meant she would have to work her birthday. She considered it a great bargain, especially after The Doctor let her under shot her own timeline. She previously had a lengthy discussion with Ashley about her disappearance; but this time was about Ashley. According to the numerous messages, her boyfriend broke up with her. They were barely together a year, but Naomi knew that Ashley had a big heart and it was too easy for her to fall for the wrong guy.

As Ashley quietly sobbed into her friend's shoulder, Naomi glanced around and hoped no one was watching. "Hey, Ash, let's go inside." she offered weakly; but it proved to work.

Ashley stormed into her small house, leaving Naomi to shut the front door. Her blonde friend walked over the couch and recovered herself with a thick comforter. Naomi pulled her Converses off and left them at the front door as she walked into the nearby kitchen and place her plastic bags on the counter.

"For the evening meal, I shall prepare some-" Naomi began to unpack the pork chops just as Ash cut her off.

"I've already ordered pizza. Sausage and green peppers, right?"

Naomi pushed her lips together and hid her obvious disappointment from Ash. "Yep, that's my favorite. But I thought you hated peppers?"

"I'm not eating," she said in a melancholy voice. She sniffed loudly and covered her face with the comforter.

Keeping her true emotions hidden, Naomi pulled out a bottle of wine; Arbor Mist. It was Ash's favorite. "Shall we wait to crack this open or now?"

"Did you bring any beer?"

Naomi made her lips thin again; trying to be patient with her best friend. "Miller, right?"

She popped two cans off of the six pack and walked over to Ash. "You're going to have to eat eventually," Naomi said, handing a can to Ash.

"Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not ever." Ash replied, opened the can, and gulped a mouth full of beer.

"Well, let's start with tonight. What do you want to do?"

"Wallow in self pity," Ash was proving to be difficult. Naomi never enjoyed Ash's choice in men, for the sole fact that they always broke up with her. Anthony, that was the name of her recent ex; honestly, she never saw anything in Anthony anyways and was actually quite relieved that they broke up. She just wanted Ash to have been the one to do it. Now, for the next week, Naomi was going to spend her evenings at Ash's house, watching movies, talking her down from crying-spells, and eating junk food. It became a process. Not that Naomi didn't mind being the supportive friend through her break ups, it was just exhausting after working extra hard at the warehouse all day; and the occasional thought about The Doctor.

As the sun was setting behind the tall city buildings, Naomi silently ate her pizza as Ash continue her rant about how much of a jerk-off Anthony was.

"And then, you wanna hear this load?, he lied to me about that necklace he gave me. He told me it was a real diamond and silver chain, but when I took it to the pawn shop, they said they could only give me $35 for it, and that was being generous!"

"Maybe he was lying to impress you?"

"Or so he could be a heartless cheapskate!" She thrust her head back and finished her third can of beer. With one hand, she crushed it and tossed it over her shoulder into the small pile of trash. Naomi knew better than to try to clean up her house while she was like this. "I hate that ass," she muttered.

"If it's any consolation, I hate him too. Especially if he's being lying to you throughout your relationship."

Before Ash had a chance to further her rant, the doorbell rang. Both girls looked confused and stared at the door. "You order something else?" Naomi asked her depressed friend.

"It's probably Mormons; make them go away," Ash fell into her fortress of pillows and covered her head with the thick blanket. Naomi glared at her friend as she stood up and walked to the door.

She used one eye to look through the peephole, only to realize it was being covered by a hand. Confused, but still weary, Naomi carefully opened the door. As quickly as she unlocked the handle, the wooden door slammed into her face. "Och!" she stumbled back and held her nose. "What's the-" she forced her eyes open to be met by a familiar face. "Doctor!" she whispered to her grey-haired alien. "What are you doing here?"

"Ah! Naomi! I was hoping you would recognize me." She opened the door all the way and noticed that The Doctor wasn't wearing his normal black jacket; instead it was an unbuttoned repairman shomk. "I hope you appreciate me going undercover to get you."

"Undercover? You're wearing a different shirt-"

The Doctor pushed his way inside Ash's house and took a few steps to examine her messy home. "Yes, it's the repairman you ordered."

Ash popped her head up and eyed the strange man carefully. "You've got the wrong house," she said through sniffs.

Naomi saw The Doctor make a face as if he disapproved. "You've got your work cut out for you," he said; thankfully he said it faster than Ash could comprehend that he was insulting her.

"Hey! You heard her; wrong house!" Naomi attempted to grab his forearm, but he stepped away.

"Nonsense! This is the correct house." The Doctor walked into the living room and looked around. Ash watched him oddly and looked like she was about to burst into tears. She sniffed a few times, drawing The Doctor's attention back to Ash. "Do you have to do that?"

Naomi knew that Ash was in a delicate state and anything could set her off; and The Doctor was beginning to push her buttons. Ash glared at The Doctor, ready to bite his head off. "Who the hell are you?"

"Ah, funny you should ask. I'm-"

"Leaving!" Naomi interrupted him before he could sign his death warrant. "He is leaving. Don't mind him, he's a bit confused." She wrapped her fingers around his wrist and pulled him away from the fuming Ash. She forced him back to the front door and tried to push him out, that was when he started to fight back.

"Oi! What are you doing?" He asked as he used his foot to keep the door open.

"I can't go with you; not right now. She's going through hell, she needs me."

The Doctor became sober for a moment and replied with, "I need you."

Naomi took what he said deeply. She never figured that he would ever need her for anything. She was always under the impression that she was just along for the ride; not that she would actually be _needed_. He was The Doctor, a time traveling alien, why did he needed her? She was a nobody.

She looked at him in his dark eyes, "Don't make me choose."

"I'm not asking. Five minutes. Then you'll be back to help her." The Doctor glanced back at the raggedy Ash on the couch, "Oh, does she need it. But, come with me. Now."

Naomi bit her lip, his offer was tempting. She needed a break from her life, considering she had nothing but meetings at work about bids and at the police station. And handling Ash during a break-up was definitely a second job.

"Five minutes?"

"Two, if you want."

She turned back to Ash, releasing the door a little. "He's kinda lost. I'm going to give him some directions. Be right back."

Before Ash could protest, Naomi slipped on her shoes and ran out the door. The Doctor led her down the suburban street to the end of the block, where behind a shed was the TARDIS. He opened the door and rushed inside, with Naomi close on his heels. She had a huge grin on her face as she shut the TARDIS door behind her. She faced her Doctor and noticed that the lights were dimmer and that the small library on the second-ish floor was lit up. There was a chalkboard and a desk of opened books. The Doctor pulled a lever and the hum of the TARDIS began to sound. Naomi walked to the main console and gave The Doctor a questioning look. He heard her silent question and began to explain.

"Yes, you know sometimes, when you talk to yourself, what if you're not?"

"Not what?"

"What if it's not you you're talking to? Proposition- what if no one is ever really alone, what if every single living being has a companion- a silent passenger, a shadow? What if the prickle on the back of your neck, is the breath of something close behind you?" he inquired her.

His ominous tone and creepy questions caused chills to race across Naomi's body. She braced herself and locked her eyes onto her mysterious Doctor. He didn't act like this last time, even the time before that. Was he with his other companion, the one who was in need of coffee? Or is this what happens when he circles the universe by himself? Both seemed very likely, however he was implying of being alone and not really being alone. So, was he concocting a ridiculous idea so he could believe he wasn't really alone?

"Have you been travelling by yourself for a while?" she decided to ask.

"Perhaps, I never have."

"I don't understand," Naomi admitted, revealing a small bit of fear.

"I have proof!" The Doctor said. He grabbed Naomi's wrist and led her to the stairs that led up into the small library, however he did not go up it. Instead, he released her and gestured her to walk up the stairs. Naomi gave a slight nod and stepped upwards. The shelves were covered with books, varying in size and thickness, the desk was cluttered with open books and different documents hinted yellow with age. "The chalkboard," he directed her.

Naomi turned her head to see the chalkboard, on it was one word, "Listen." She narrowed her eyes and examined it. Before she could question it, The Doctor was leaning on the railing and called to her.

"It wrote that. Whatever _it_ is."

"Really?" Naomi quickly studied the simple lines and realized that she has seen it before. "It looks like your handwriting," she concluded.

"How do you know my handwriting?"

"You wrote me notes. Remember?"

"Oh yes," The Doctor was surprisingly easy to convince. He rushed up the stairs, skipping every other step, and leaned towards Naomi. "Well, I couldn't have written it and forgotten, could I?"

"Potentially," Naomi shrugged her shoulders and used her thumb to point behind her at the messy desk. "What's all that?"

The Doctor eased past her and rounded the desk, lightly raking his fingers over the pages. "Dreams." Naomi stood in front of the desk, scanning over the odd assortment of paper. She picked up a small paperback book and began to read the middle paragraph. "Accounts of dreams," The Doctor continued as Naomi pay half attention to him, "By different people, all through history. You see," Naomi drew her eyes from the book and back at The Doctor, "I have a theory."

"A theory?"

"I think everybody, at some point in their lives, has the exact same nightmare." The Doctor gave Naomi an excited grin, but she did not feel the same. "You wake up, or you think you do," he began to explain the nightmare to her, "And there's someone in the dark, someone close, or you think there might be. So you sit up, turn on the light. The room looks different at night. It ticks and creaks and breathes. And you tell yourself there's nobody there, nobody watching, nobody listening, nobody there at all, and you very nearly believe it. You really, really try. And then, right before you stand up, a hand grabs you from under the bed." Naomi watched as The Doctor adjusted his posture and straightened his coat, "There are accounts of that dream throughout human history, time and time again, the same dream." The Doctor stepped down from the library and back to the main floor of the TARDIS, Naomi was close behind. "Now, there is a very obvious question I'm about to ask you." He faced her, while slightly leaning on the console of the TARDIS. She stood next to him as he continued. "Do you know what it is?"

"Have you had that dream?" Naomi wasn't trying to answer his question, rather to find out if The Doctor shared such a creepy dream along with the majority of humans.

"Exactly."

"What? No, I was asking you. Did you have that dream?" she clarified.

The Doctor slightly narrowed his eyes at her, apparently not thrilled that she shifted the focus of discussion. "I asked first."

"Technically, I did."

"You really didn't," he insisted.

"Fine." Naomi gave in. She thought about the dream he described. For some unknown reason, the first eleven years of her life were always foggy and a lot of black areas. Naomi was always under the impression that most people don't remember that much of their primary childhood, so attempting to recall one particular dream was much more difficult for her than for anyone else. "I don't remember the-"

"Oh! That's right; you wouldn't remember," The Doctor cut her off. Naomi glared at him and crossed her arms.

"And why is that? Doctor, if you know something-"

"Focus, Naomi."

She rolled her eyes,"Probably, but everyone dreams about something under the bed!" Naomi rushed out, shrugging her shoulders; obviously getting annoyed with The Doctor.

"Why?" he asked, wide eyed and slightly pleased that the topic had changed in his favor.

"Just hold on tight." The Doctor carefully placed Naomi's fingers on top of a gelatin surface with precision and delicate hands. Naomi took a deep breath and kept her hands as still as possible. "If anything bites, let it."

"What is it?" she asked, following The Doctor with her eyes only.

"TARDIS telepathic interface. You're in mental contact with the TARDIS. So don't think anything rude."

"Why not?"

"It might end up on all the screens." He explained as he began pushing buttons and flipping a few switches. "The TARDIS is extrapolating your entire timeline, from the moment of your birth, to the moment of your death."

"I don't want to know about my death," Naomi whispered to the main console; apparently it was loud enough to get The Doctor's attention. He looked at her and elaborated.

"Since you are unable to identify when and where you had this dream, the TARDIS will track on your subconscious and extract the relevant information. I've turned off the safeguards and navigation- slaving the TARDIS to you." He stood right next to her, giving her a stern but thoughtful stare. "It should be able to hone in on the moment in your timeline when you first had that dream. But I need you to try and concentrate. If you tell the TARDIS what you're looking for, she'll find it. You must empty your mind entirely, except for that one nightmare."

"How do you know this, Doctor?"

"Naomi, please," he placed a steady hand on her shoulder, almost as if he was trying to comfort her, "We need to see."

"See what?"

"What's under your bed."

Naomi stared into The Doctor's eyes; those dark orbs were pleading with her to help him, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he was hiding something from her. After a short minute to study every possible inch in The Doctor's eyes, Naomi sighed and closed her eyes, trying to tell the TARDIS what nightmare they were looking for. She replayed a fake scenario in her head, hoping that the TARDIS would understand. Suddenly, the TARDIS began to hum and the pistons in pipeline leading into the ceiling began to move. Naomi kept her eyes closed as The Doctor took light steps around her.

"Ooh! Okay, now don't get distracted." He instructed her. "Remember, you are flying a time machine. Try to get it right this time." She heard the faintest joking tone in his voice; Naomi couldn't help but reply with a simple smile.


	10. Chapter 10

"I was so certain," The Doctor said, dishearteningly. He shook his head as he let out a loud sigh. The TARDIS ceased the humming sound and completely landed.

"I know you were," Naomi replied, running up the stairs from the closet; she was fiddling with the belt around her jeans. The Doctor didn't seem too surprised that Naomi had emerged when he was talking to himself. "It's alright to get some things wrong once in a while."

He lifted his head and examined Naomi in her new outfit; when they were looking for their silent passengers, her jeans ripped and her shirt became incredibly muddy. The Doctor wasn't convinced about her statement.

"I'm just glad that my life wasn't in any exceptional danger this time," Naomi gave a weak joke; The Doctor wasn't sharing her optimism. "Doctor, it's fine. Really." She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and gave a light squeeze. He stared back at her, Naomi meeting his disappointed eyes with those of a friend. "It was still fun; and I definitely needed to get away."

"Perhaps," he said, still not catching on her positive attitude. "I believe you've got another appointment," The Doctor straightened himself and faced Naomi. He snapped his fingers and the TARDIS door opened. She glanced outside the blue box to see the suburban landscape that was close to Ash's house. Naomi began to dread going back to her grieving friend; she had exerted all her energy chasing shadows in the night and imaginary monsters under the bed with The Doctor.

"Unfortunately," she sighed. "Care to help?"

"I'm not exactly 'domestic'," The Doctor replied, giving her a stern nod. Naomi saw the slightest half-smile from him, but decided not to push her luck.

"Whatever gave you that impression? I think you could give her a lot of useful advice."

"Really rather not." He said. The Doctor turned away from her and moved the computer screen with him. He touched a few things and watched the screen. Naomi knew it was her time to leave the TARDIS; hopefully he would be in better spirits next time they would go on an adventure. Naomi raked her fingers through her hair and decided to step off the TARDIS. Right before she stepped across the threshold, she heard The Doctor say, "Butterflies."

"What?" Naomi turned to him; his eyes were still glued to the screen.

"Hmm?"

"You said something about butterflies?"

"Ahh, yes." The Doctor looked at her over the console, one hand on the ledge and the other over his abdominal area. He removed both hands and cupped them behind his back. "There's a planet, entire population of butterflies. I'm doing some research-"

"Can I go? It sounds beautiful," Naomi was grasping at straws at this point; almost anything was better than dealing with Ash after a breakup.

"No," The Doctor sounded a bit harsh, but Naomi didn't quite realized his tone. "I need to do this alone."

Naomi was disappointed, but she knew it was for the best. "Okay, okay, but you should take me there one day." She quickly turned away from The Doctor and gently closed the door. Naomi heard him say something else, but wasn't sure what it was; she concluded it was just him talking to himself again, after all, everyone does it.

She ran around the shed just as the TARDIS began to disappear. She took long strides to make it back to Ash's house before a noticeable amount of time passed. The sun was almost entirely behind the city in the distant and the air was already getting chilled by the night sky. Naomi jumped over the stairs and rushed into her friend's house. The only light on was the TV in the living room, giving an ominous feel to Ash's usually carefree house. She took a deep breath to slightly relax her racing heart and took her shoes off.

"Ash? You in here?" Naomi entered the living room and noticed her blonde friend wasn't cuddled in her fortress of pillows and blankets.

A light switched on in the kitchen, Naomi glanced up to see Ash standing with an accusing expression on her face. She crossed her arms and adjusted her stance. "Who the hell was that?"

"Who? The repairman?" Naomi immediately began to play dumb.

"What were you doing with him?"

"Giving him directions; he was really confused-"

"Behind a shed?" Naomi swallowed hard; evidently, this wasn't going to be easy. Ash narrowed the gap between herself and her red haired friend. "What about to your clothes, did you just change them?"

"Well, actually-"

"Is that guy your sugar daddy?"

"What! No! No, no!" Naomi was honestly surprised that Ash would ask something like that. "He's a friend!"

"An older male friend," Ash began to list off all the qualities she noticed, "That knew where'd you would be, you ditching me in a heartbeat, and running behind a shed with him, only to come back with different clothes. Naomi, I'm not stupid."

"I know how this might look," Naomi tried to choose the correct words, but Ash was still enormously upset about Anthony and one wrong word could prove catastrophic, "But, let me explain."

Naomi paused as she waited for Ash's permission to speak. Ash crossed her arms and glared Naomi down, piercing her with dagger for eyes. The blonde girl waited a moment then said, "Okay, explain."

This was the split second when Naomi contemplated telling Ash the whole truth; how The Doctor was a time traveling alien and their visits to faraway planets and times. The only problem with that was Ash was always earth-bound, constantly thinking of the "here and now," Naomi seriously doubted that Ash would believe her if she told her the truth. However, since Ash was in a sharp mood, lying was out of the question. Naomi took a deep breath and raked her hair again, tied between the unbelievable truth and an obvious lie. "Oh damn," she uttered under her breath. She really wished The Doctor would whisk her away to that planet full of butterflies. Maybe even back inside Rusty to fix the radiation leak; or becoming a prisoner by the Sontarans again. Anything seemed easier than this hounding by Ash.

"It's," Naomi finally began, "It's quite a long story, and I'm almost certain you won't believe it-"

"Try me." Ash snapped at Naomi. The fuming blonde dropped her arms and stormed passed her shaking friend and reclaimed her throne of pillows. "It's not like anyone is going to call me."

"Well, you never know. He could call and confess how much of an ass-"

"Don't change the damn subject." Ash growled over her shoulder.

Naomi shuddered at Ash's rough tone. She braced herself and carefully rushed passed Ash to sit on the second couch. Her blonde friend was holding her piercing eyes at her, almost daring her to lie. Naomi immediately lying was the worse of the two paths. And so, she began the tale with a simple phrase.

"He's an alien."

"Alien?" Ash rolled her eyes, "An alien with a Scottish accent?"

"Lots of aliens have accents," Naomi couldn't help but defend her claim.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Hey, that's your fault if you don't believe me."

"There is no such thing as aliens!" Ash shouted. It happened again, a wave of confidence washed over Naomi, just like when she was surrounded by the Sontarans. It was still strange, but Naomi wasn't about to waste it.

"You mean to tell me, the millions of stars and billions of planets, and the furthest reaches of this universe holds absolutely no life? No extra terrestrials? That, we humans are the only, ONLY, living forms in the entire universe?" Naomi concluded with a stern finger pointing at Ash, who was speechless. "Think about it; it's statistically improbable that we are the only thing surviving in the universe. So why is it so difficult to accept that they're aliens with Scottish accents?" Ash's mouth was ajar with shock and the sudden authority in Naomi's voice; apparently The Doctor was wearing off on her. She calmed herself slightly before saying, "Honestly, if you can't comprehend aliens with accents, then I shouldn't tell you the rest."

"There's more?!" Ash gasped.

"Yeah, lots more," Naomi gave a wicked smile to her shocked friend, who looked like she was fighting an inner battle. Naomi relaxed by reclining in the couch and crossed her legs under her. She watched for a moment, studying Ash's underlying reactions to her outburst. "Need a minute?"

"No," Ash answered, suddenly full of life again. "I don't believe you."

"Really?"

"And I know you're full of crap; if you actually met an alien, you would flip out."

"To be perfectly honest, I didn't know he was an alien until after I boarded his ship."

"Ship? Like a spaceship? Oh my God," Ash rolled her eyes and sighed, clearly convinced that Naomi was lying.

"Well, not exactly. It's more of a-" she couldn't help but use the technical term, "TARDIS."

"Naomi, now I know you're lying."

"I'm not," she answered matter-of-factly.

"Yes you are."

"Nope."

"Naomi-"

"Ashley."

"Knock it off!"

"You wanted the truth."

"Jesus, you're lying!"

"What makes you say that?"

"What would possess you to board an alien ship-"

"TARDIS."

"-An _alien _ship! You aren't that stupid. Maybe naive. Or maybe I don't know you at all."

"Perhaps," Naomi felt herself channelling her own inner Doctor, "Or, perhaps you don't know who you really are until faced with almost certain demise."

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" Ash jumped up and loomed over her calm faced friend, glaring swords at her and breathing heavily.

"Think? Well, I do a lot of that; however I _know_ that I am Naomi Winter, you're best friend from seventh grade; the one _you_ called for consolation. And I am the one who travels with The Doctor."

"Doctor who?"

Naomi smiled at the question; she had asked The Doctor the same thing when he finally introduced himself to her, after she had referred him as Eyebrows. Ash, on the other hand, was not amused as Naomi. Instead of smiling back, Ash quickly swung her hand across Naomi's face, leaving a large red hand print on her cheek. Naomi's right cheek stung, but it was her scar on her jawline that began to pulsate again. The familiar pain stemmed from her chin and covered a good portion of her neck under her ear. Naomi did her best to not scream out in pain, rather, she dug her short nails into one of the couch cushions. Ash didn't understand what was happening until Naomi jerked her head to reveal the scar; just like when the Rutan first gave it to her, tiny pin holes lined the scar and the small veins in the area were visible.

"Jesus Christ!" Ash stepped away, backing into her TV. "What the hell is that?!"

Naomi couldn't form words, only grunt in pain. She didn't want to scream, but it was quite difficult. "What did you do?" she tried to keep her voice down, but the agonizing pain shooting from her neck made it painful to move her mouth.

"I-I just slapped you!"

She couldn't take it, Naomi shoved her nearby pillow over her mouth and let out a scream, still digging her nails into anything within reach. Tears began to make her vision watery and her hands started to shake. Naomi threw the pillow aside and forced herself to stand, startling Ash to retreat by the front door. "Ash, Ash!" Naomi called after her. Her blonde friend turned around and took one last look at her before swinging the door open. Without shoes and a second thought, Ash ran out the door.

"No, no!" Naomi took a step and fell to her knees, gripping her neck. "Ash! Please!" she put her head on the wood flooring, hoping for some type of relief; none came. "I need you." The pain felt like it was expanding, starting to ring in her ears and straining her optic nerve. Her lovely pigmented blue eye became blood-shot within a single blink. It felt like an unknown pathogen was setting her skin on fire. The closest sense of relief Naomi experienced was when her tears rolled over her scar; but it wasn't enough. Naomi instinctively began to scratch deep into her neck, drawing blood and proving fruitless. Her freshly opened skin felt as though her blood was boiling hot as it slowly rolled down her shoulder. "Doctor," she pitifully cried out. She didn't know what caused her to say his name, but she did.

As if she summoned him just by saying his name, he appeared. Through painfully blurry eyes, Naomi was looking up at The Doctor. It had seemed that he teleported to her; he was kneeling right in front of her, talking to her. The ringing in her ear was deafening and echoing, so she couldn't understand anything he was saying. "Please," she whispered, still crying. The tight grip around her left optic nerve began to lessen, the long streams of blood on her shoulder stopped boiling, and the veins on her lower neck began to reside. She was still in pain, but it was slowly dying away.

Her left eye was sore from being bloodshot, as her ear was continuing to echo with an unknown source. With shaking hands and slightly bloody fingers, Naomi held onto The Doctor's arms as he ceased her pain. She didn't know what was wrong, but her head felt light and her neck started to crumble under the pressure. With the help of gravity, Naomi's dizzy head fell onto The Doctor's shoulder; he didn't even flinch.

"Don't worry," she could just barely make out what he was saying to her only because his mouth was close to her ear. "I've got you."

She fought the urge to close her eyes and drift away; instead she puffed out staggered breaths of heavy air. Her hands never quite stopped shaking as she clung onto The Doctor's arms the entire time she leaned on him. The borders around her vision were starting to get dark and hazy. Naomi didn't want to subcome to unconsciousness, she didn't want to be weak, she wanted to stay with The Doctor.

"Find me," he told her. She looked up to him just as he placed a hand on her forehead. It was a quick flash before her vision was completely engulfed with darkness.

It felt like a blink was all that separated that moment with The Doctor and Naomi waking up on a soft bed. Her head was rested on feather pillows and her body was gently wrapped under fluffy blankets. Naomi was staring blankly at the ceiling over her, trying to restart her mind and process what had happened to her. She began to slowly kick off the blankets and immediately rubbed her hands over her neck and chin; it was smooth, like the Rutan had never touched it. In disbelief, Naomi followed the scar under her ear and around her hairline to the back of her neck, there wasn't anything out of the normal. Once she realized that her neck was healed, she looked around her new surroundings. It had a few hanging pictures on the teal walls, a full length mirror in the corner and an aged wardrobe next to the window; she was in Ash's bedroom. Bright sunlight slipped through the blinds and curtains and filled the room with just enough light for Naomi to notice that she was alone. The door across the room, however, was left open.

With a swimming mind and heavy head, Naomi rolled onto her side and pushed herself to sit upright. She let out a small grunt as she forced her jelly legs to flip off of the bed. As she took a short break from trying to get off the bed, she heard footsteps on the wooden floor stop by the door. Over her shoulder, Naomi saw her blonde friend standing. She never knew that she could be filled with so much anger for one person.

"You're up," Ash was calm and collective now.

Naomi scoffed at her and looked away. "All thanks to you," she said in a harsh sarcastic tone. "Where's The Doctor?"

"Sweetie," Ash completely entered the room and cautiously approached the bed, still leaving some space between the two, "It's just us."

"The Scottish man, where did he go?"

"There wasn't any Scottish man."

"Yes, yes there was. The repairman. We got into a big fight about me giving him directions; where did _that_ man go?" Naomi wasn't in the mood to play games with Ash, she just wanted to leave.

"Naomi, dear," Ash took a leap of faith and sat at the edge of the bed, out of Naomi's striking range, "You had a seizure. I had to call Donnie for help, he told me what to do and I brought you in here once you stopped shaking."

"Seizure? What, no." Naomi glared at Ash, starting to get confused and annoyed, "The scar on my neck, after you slapped me it started to-"

"A scar? On your neck? Your neck is as perfect as ever."

Naomi rubbed her neck again, the scar was still gone. "It was along my jaw, went from my chin to just about my ear." She explained.

"You've never had a scar there, sweetie." Ash gestured to her standing mirror, "Look for yourself."

With slightly narrowed eyes, Naomi carefully walked to the corner, using the wall as a support. She had to take a few deep breaths to regain her composure. With sharp eyes, Naomi examined every inch on her neck, even studying the opposite side. There was nothing. No scar and no veins popping out. "But, how is that-" she started to mutter, however she was interrupted by someone walking to the mirror behind her; a tall man with greying hair wearing a simple black suit and white under shirt without a tie. His face seemed to be painted with a sour expression, and Naomi knew who this man was; The Doctor. Before she could turn around or gasp in surprise, The Doctor in the mirror held a finger to his lips, silently signaling her to keep quiet. She watched him carefully as he pointed at her, pretend to zip his lips, then pointed at himself; Naomi slightly narrowed her eyes and gave a small nod, understanding just enough to not talk about him. Finally, he used his index and middle finger to point at his eyes then at her, meaning that he was watching her. Naomi took a deep breath, to express her confusion and her fear. The Doctor didn't reply with silent motions, instead he slightly raised his head, as if he needed a better angle to see her. He held up his sonic screwdriver to the mirror and clicked it on, however the buzzing sound didn't reach her ears. After a second, the mirror shattered.


	11. Chapter 11

The girls sat inside a cafe, sipping taboo drinks and nibbling cake pops. Naomi had her fingers on the keyboard of her laptop as Ash began to scroll through social media apps on her impressive phone. Naomi's laptop screen seemed out of focus and she was having trouble reading, as though her eyes weren't allowing her to read. She blinked a few times, attempting to kickstart her brain to recognize the words on the bright screen. That proved to be pointless. Shaking her head slightly, Naomi dragged her face away from the laptop to the walls of the cafe; the pictures on the wall were blurry and held absolutely no form. The faces of the other customers in the cafe were indistinguishable and seemed generic. No one was out of the ordinary.

"Found your doctor yet?" Ash asked, after taking a sip of a pink hinted drink.

"Doctor? What?"

"You're looking for your doctor. Have you found him?"

"I think I need to get my eyes checked first; everything is morphed."

"Can't your doctor help with that?"

Naomi shook her head and sighed; everything was strange now. Ash would only talk about The Doctor, which didn't make much sense considering she made it apparent that she didn't believe in aliens. She was suffering some type of memory lost, unable to remember how she traveled from one point to another. Naomi was nearly convinced that her mind was playing tricks on her; she swore she saw a passerby have a tiger head. Was this some sort of side effect of being with The Doctor? Did the TARDIS mess up something in her brain, causing her to have hallucinations? And where was The Doctor? It had to have been a month since she last saw him; did he abandon her for no reason? That was the scariest question because she still held onto that promise not to speak about him. It hurt, not knowing anything, and not being able to talk about it.

"I don't feel well," Naomi pushed herself away from the table and stumbled into the bathroom. She sat awkwardly on the toilet and rested her forehead on the chilling wall. Taking slow, deep breaths, Naomi managed to stop her vision from spinning and concentrate some words on a sign into neat lines. A quick wash of her face with cold water and she would return back to Ash and her coffee truffle latte. Naomi held her head low above the sink, shut her eyes, and heard a male voice.

She snapped around and saw no one, but the voice kept talking, echoing all around her. It definitely wasn't Scottish, so it was The Doctor, but it was well-known; one of her older brothers.

"Hello?" Naomi called out, fairly certain the source of the voice was inside the restroom. It continued to speak, however she couldn't make out the words clearly. "If you want me to help you, you have to be a bit more audible." Naomi might not be with The Doctor, but if an alien needed help, she would aid in any way; since the voice couldn't be her brothers'.

"She is! She is!" was the trademarked Scottish accent. Naomi turned completely around, still no one was there.

"Look at her! Her damn veins are exposed!" That authoritarian voice had to have been Donnie's. What were they talking about? And when did The Doctor and Donnie meet?

"Hospital; can we please take her to the one on-" it was a female voice, but Naomi couldn't tell who.

"Those walking jokes you call doctors couldn't help her even if I let them near her," The Doctor's sarcastic tone echoed in the room. Naomi was spinning around, trying to pinpoint the voices.

"What was the thing about mirrors again?" Johnny's voice carried, however it was louder than the others.

"Mirrors?" Naomi questioned out loud, almost to herself.

Turning on her heels, Naomi stared at the mirror above the sink. She narrowed her eyes and held her breath, expecting something to pop out of the mirror.

"It's a theory; I have no way to proving if it could work or is reaching her." The familiar buzzing of the sonic screwdriver echoed for a few seconds, then The Doctor seemed to appear in the mirror again. Naomi looked around the bathroom; he wasn't physically there. "If I set the frequency of pulses off of the mirror to match the one's emitting from her mind, I might, _might_, be able to send messages to her. A one way window, if you will." There seemed to be some sort of lag between the motions in the mirror and what The Doctor was saying throughout the restroom. Naomi watched, cautiously, as The Doctor faced the mirror; looking at her but not really.

"Even if your idea works, how does that help her?" Donnie demanded.

"I don't know!" The Doctor snickered back at her brother. "I can't use too much of _my_ tech because then they would get what they want and kill her; and you don't want that, do you?" Naomi saw The Doctor bare his teeth away from the mirror. "I have to be incredibly delicate. Do you have any idea how intricate these aliens wire their victims? One wrong move and-" The Doctor quickly smacked his hands together, "-she's gone."

"So, you expect us to sit and wait?" Naomi finally caught on that the female was Taylor; how did her whole family get involved with The Doctor? So much for not being domestic.

"Got any bright ideas?"

"Well no-"

"Then shut up!" he demanded her.

That little outburst from The Doctor caused Jonny to defend his girlfriend; which erupted with everyone arguing loudly in Naomi's ears. She couldn't understand what any of them were saying, but it was giving her a massive headache.

"Stop. Stop!" she called into the air. With constant echoes circling around her and tones raising, it felt as though Naomi was going crazy. She glanced up and saw that The Doctor was still in view in the mirror. Holding her hands over her ears, Naomi quickly knocked a few times on the mirror, hoping that would get The Doctor's attention. Apparently outsmarting Donnie and Jonny was more important than looking at the mirror. Why was she associated with thick-headed guys? Crawling onto the sink, carefully not to put her whole weight on the frail-looking sink, Naomi tried a different approach, praying deeply that it would work. One deep breath later, about half of the mirror was covered with her hot breath. She used a finger to draw in the words, "Shut the hell up." She stepped away and observed The Doctor through the mirror. It took a few minutes before any of the bickering adults looked at the mirror.

"Oh my God, who did that?" Donnie asked; as if the answer wasn't obvious.

The Doctor walked closer to it and narrowed his dark eyes, as if he couldn't believe what he saw. She watched as his pupils dart and zipped across of the letter and lines, studying her sloppy work. Naomi resisted the urge to smile, but failed. She leaned close to the mirror, staring intently at the reflective glass. The Doctor didn't seem convinced that she had done it, so she decided to add one more bit, this time while he was looking. Another breath of moist air on the mirror and then she drew one last thing to her note to her family. With two curved strokes, she amended a heart.

The Doctor's eyes popped open wide and he jumped back, holding his sonic screwdriver at the mirror. He clicked it and within an instant, the mirror suddenly cracked and fell apart.

Next thing Naomi could remember, Ash was driving down an open residential street with Naomi as a passenger. The radio was silent as Naomi's thin hair whipped around her face. With the windows rolled down and Ash cruising down the road, Naomi watched the clear sky above her head, taking in the air and enjoying the steady breeze on her face. As the sun shined into her light blue eyes, she brought her attention back to her blonde friend; she had two strong hands on the steering wheel and a stiff neck looking forward.

"Man, aren't you nervous," Naomi joked, trying to ease her friend. "What's wrong with you?"

"You were talking about The Doctor," Ash barely moved her head as she glared at Naomi.

"Was I? I don't recall-"

"You were in the middle of how you two met. I want to hear," she insisted.

Ash was never this stern, never this cruel; well, she never treated Naomi with disrespect, such as she was doing now. "Actually, I'd rather not. How are you?"

"I'd be better if we can find your Doctor," she hissed, clearly getting frustrated with something Naomi was not seeing. "I want to talk to him."

"Why is that all you ever talk about?"

"I'm just curious, worried about you; that's all." Ash slightly changed her tone, but Naomi could tell that she wasn't about to drop the subject.

"Well, don't. I'm an adult and I can make my own decisions."

"You can't handle yourself with him; he's dangerous."

"You're one to talk! Dating any low-life that shows up at your door. And you know nothing about him." Naomi defended him; although she wasn't entirely sure if she believed herself. But, for the sake of the argument, she acted as though she did. "We're talking about something else."

Ash huffed out a sigh and turned into a gas station. With quick movements and an attitude, she switched the car off and jumped out of the driver's seat. Naomi bit her bottom lip and stared outward; the sign that advertised the price of gas per gallon was standing right next to her. The black lettering on the tiles seemed foreign, almost Chinese. She couldn't read any of the numbers. "What the-?" she muttered as she fished around the poach on the door to pull out an old receipt; again, all of the letters were altered and illegible.

Confused and a bit frightened, Naomi opened the car door and ran to the gas pump. She narrowed her eyes as she tried to focus and read anything that was posted; she couldn't understand any of it.

"Naomi," she turned to face whomever was calling her name; it was Ash. She was standing tall and mean, almost like she was about to break out in a run. "Get back in the car," her blonde friend demanded. Although Naomi couldn't read words, her vision was still strong enough to notice that Ash's eyes changed colors; they were particularly glowing orange.

"No, Ash, I'm gonna walk for the rest of the way," Naomi said, taking a cautious step away. "I'll text you later-" Another step back and Ash took one toward Naomi. The red haired girl saw this pattern and immediately knew something was wrong; this wasn't Ash. "Listen, I don't know who you are, I'm not looking for trouble."

"Where is The Doctor?" The creature that held Ash's form hunched over and seemed to howl at her. What was once Ash's normal human mouth transformed into a ravenous piranha mouth. The teeth were long and sticking up and outward. The glowing eyes locked onto Naomi and the creature moved forward. Naomi felt her entire body tense up as the new creature, that barely held any resemblance to Ash, approached her. Something finally clicked in her mind; she had seen this creature before, it was in her young teenage dreams. This nightmare creature narrowed the gap, giving Naomi little time to come up with a plan. "Where!" its hiss echoed across the street and down the road, off the buildings and into the sky. Naomi covered her ears but forced herself to keep her eyes on her nightmare.

_Doctor,_ she screamed in her head, _if you're going to come out any time, it needs to be now._ However, his rough hands never grabbed her; she suddenly knew that she was alone. All she could do was step away out of the parking lot and into the street. Her nightmare didn't follow, instead, it looked down the road. Naomi glanced in the general direction, she saw multiple vehicles speeding down the street. As if it was basic human instinct, she spun around and broke out in a fast run. Behind her the creature howled a screech into the open sky, seeming to cause dark, ominous clouds to liter the blue hue.

Naomi kept running, the buildings around her were familiar, but it was like she something was keeping her from recognizing where she was. After she ran around corners and down empty alleyways, Naomi stopped to catch her breath. In different parts of the city, she heard more of the screech echo into the sky; that told her that there were more of them. With one last puff of exhausted air, Naomi looked up and saw a large skyscraper with mirror-like windows on the ground floor. Immediately, she rushed over and began to pound on the glass.

"Doctor! Doctor, please!" she begged as she left sweaty handprints on the spotless glass. "Talk to me, what do I do? How do I stop them; Doctor!" She stepped away and examined all of the large glass, The Doctor wasn't standing in any of them. Down the block, Naomi heard the screeching getting louder. "No, no," she muttered, becoming completely terrified. "You can't leave me; I won't let you," she vowed. A panicked breath escaped her lips as she began to write the word "Doctor" on the glass. She waited a short moment before checking her surroundings. Those creatures from her younger years were no where in sight, but the echoes of the screeching kept Naomi on her toes.

In a pit of frustration, Naomi slammed her fist into the glass, not breaking it, but cracking it. A couple of small shards of glass stuck in her bony knuckles as she brought her balled hand back, tiny trails of blood covered her fingers. Baring her teeth, she turned away and looked upward. An overwhelming urge to shout into the empty sky washed over her. All she waited to know that he hadn't abandoned her; which was becoming more imminent. "He wouldn't," she convinced herself. "He could be anywhere in time and space; someone more important needs him more than me. I can do this-" In the middle of her pep-talk to herself, an ear piercing screech erupted down the street. Naomi snapped to see one of the piranha creatures facing her. "Oh damn," she said, regaining her fear.


	12. Chapter 12

Sprinting down the road away from the creature, Naomi constantly looked over her shoulder to see how quickly it was approaching; every glance seemed to make it run faster. Down the burren street, three more creatures waited in an ambush. Acting before thinking, she bolted into a nearby parking structure. Taking long strides, Naomi ran up the car ramps but kept an open eye for any type of vehicle; the first three levels proved fruitless. "Where are all the damn cars!" she complained, with a hint of worry in her voice. Standing in the middle of the fourth floor, she spun around and pleaded for any car to magically appear. Even if she could find a car, she didn't know how to hot wire it to start; apparently her plan was flawed from the beginning.

Where were all the people as well? She couldn't be the only human in the city; unless this was some sort of alien invasion? But if that was the case, wouldn't The Doctor stop it? What could just one human possibly do against all these alien piranha creatures? How could they be aliens if she remembers having nightmares about them? The next time The Doctor stops by, Naomi will get answers to all of her questions. But for now, she took the liberty to calling them Caribes; what South Africans call piranhas.

A sign was posted on the wall, Naomi took a quick second to attempt to read it. The letters were still in complete gibberish. Why couldn't she read anything? Recognize obvious landscapes or photos? Then it suddenly occurred to her; where can't you read? But it was a long shot to her theory, she would need more proof. She held up her hands to count her fingers, her right hand had twelve and her left had thirteen. Extra fingers? That pointed towards her deduction. One last test; could she actually feel pain?

There wasn't enough time to find out; the three Caribes popped onto the same floor as her. Naomi kept her back towards the concrete wall, minimizing her chances of being surrounded. Carefully watching the predators, the red haired woman braced herself for whatever was coming.

"Where is The Doctor!" The middle Caribe demanded.

"I really wish I knew," she confessed, getting a bit paranoid about the staggering Caribes.

"Where!"

In a nervous twitch, Naomi raked her fingers through her hair, keeping her bangs out of her face. "I don't know-"

"Where!" They inched closer, making Naomi's hands shake in fear as they got ever so closer.

With her hands behind her back, Naomi used her short nails to pinch as hard as she could on her arm. At first she thought she felt something, but then she twisted the skin under her nails and she realized that she couldn't feel a thing. Everything finally made sense. So, she couldn't help but give a wicked smile.

"Where!" The Caribe hissed and slashed one of its hand in her general direction.

"I may not know where The Doctor is, or what you all want with him; but I _do_ know that there is this little trick us humans can use while we are unconscious. I honestly never thought it would ever come in handy."

"Where!"

Naomi shut her eyes for a split second to allow her hand to wrap around a hilt. The mere thought, picturing one, brought forth an impressive sword. Springing her eyes open, she saw the three Caribes screech at her, threatening her. She took a step and spun around, swinging the light sword around her and near her attackers. In reality, Naomi held no such skills to wield any type of weapon, but in her dreams, all she needed was to imagine it and she could do anything.

With smooth strokes and light steps, Naomi easily avoided the extended claws and sharp teeth of the Caribes and bashed the piranha creatures against the walls and pillars. When the three lay, motionless, Naomi dropped the sword and took another moment to bring a car into the garage. When she turned around, a sports car with the engine already switched on was waiting with the driver's door open for her. "Who needs a TARDIS?" she joked as she jumped inside.

She had never been inside an actual sports car, so her mind didn't know how the interior looked; honestly, that wasn't even a concern of hers. Out of habit, she began to feed the seat belt around her, then she stopped. "What's the point if I'm in a dream?" Releasing the fabric, Naomi shifted the gears, and drove down the ramp. Once she turned out of the garage, she heard a chorus of screeches, all varying in distance and pitches. "I don't need to be a Timelord to know that isn't good," she looked in the rearview mirror to see a horde of the Caribes racing towards her. With a wicked grin, Naomi stomped on the accelerator and chuckled as the piranha mouthed humans struggled to keep up. She sped down the road, constantly checking the mirror to see how small the creatures were becoming. One last look in the rearview mirror proved to be worth it; instead of her blue eyes looking back at her, a pair of dark eyes with grey eyebrows were staring at her.

"Naomi," The Doctor's Scottish voice sounded from the speakers, "Whatever you're doing, it's working. You're driving the infectious bacter back to the source. Keep going. If I can isolate the Ground Zero of the initial infection then I can-"

While she was distracted, she didn't notice that a new threat had emerged from a perpendicular street. As the sports car drove across an empty intersection, a large wooden club smacked into the passenger door; exerting enough brute force to flip the expensive-looking car and roll down the street. The Doctor's eyes disappeared in the mirror and Naomi tried her best to brace her head. Holding her red hair downward, she forced her head to her knees as her body became a mere ball of human mass. Two rolls later and the once impressive sports car lay on the roof, the back wheels spinning and broken glass trailing from the intersection. With a racing heart and pounding head, Naomi forced her eyes to open and see what had hit her. Through the broken window of the windshield, she saw a towering beast; it had large hands and a posture of a gorilla. It was similar to King Kong, but not quite as giant. Perhaps four stories tall, holding a wooden club that had to be dragged behind him and an army of Caribe around him, this new creature howled at her.

"That's not fair- not fair at all," she groaned as she pushed herself to regain some type of composure.

"What did you do?!" she heard a certain Scottish alien say to her, "What happened? What did they do?" Naomi wasn't as concerned as The Doctor, so she didn't ever bother to attempt to answer him. As she crawled to the edge of the front seat, she held The Doctor mumble to himself and the occasional click of the sonic screwdriver and electric sparks escaping. She carefully pulled herself out of the wreckage and as soon as she was on the asphalt, a drop of blood dripped from her forehead and landed next to her hand.

"Blood? But, it's a dream-"

"Naomi! You have to be careful; they're turning off your ventrolateral preoptic area. Whatever happens to you in your subconscious, it's going to affect your physical form."

"Great. Absolutely perfect," she grumbled as she caught enough of her breath to stand upright. She looked over the rolled over car and saw the army of Caribe and the miniature King Kong coming towards her. Behind her, she saw the bridge that overlooks The Charleston River. "One more idea," she sighed, hoping her theory was correct.

Ignoring the thudding pain from her bleeding forehead, Naomi ran as fast as her sore legs could. The screeching and howling behind her gave Naomi more incentive to keep running. Her vision was failing her, but she kept running down the street and towards the rushing river. She tried to drum up a motorcycle or a regular bicycle; hell, she would have settled for a segway. Nothing was coming to her, she figured that the Caribes were either getting stronger or it had to do with what The Doctor said. Regardless, she urged her legs to keep going.

Dodging a few slashes from the Caribes, Naomi finally made it to the bridge. She forced her sore body to climb onto the railing on the edge. Her pursuers backed off a little however they kept giving warning slashes and growls. The baby King Kong waited near the mainland, so he wouldn't crush the bridge. Naomi faced The Charleston River and kept her eyes on the horizon.

"Where's The Doctor?" one of the Caribe hissed. The surrounding Caribes echoed the question along with a few screeches.

"Waiting for me on the other side," she gave one last scoff at her once terrifying nightmares, and leaned forward. Her heart skipped a beat as her body became limp and began to plummet into the river. She heard Baby Kong take a step and looked to see one of its massive hands try to catch her; Naomi twisted in the air and narrowly slipped through the thick fingers. It felt as though she was falling forever, but it was mere seconds. There were only two possible outcomes, her body would crash into the water and break entirely, eventually waking her up, or her body would go into shock and she'd have a heart attack and it would kill her before she hit the river. As her red hair whipped over her head, she simply prayed to be with her Doctor. Once she was closer to the rushing water, Naomi held her breath and shut her eyes.

The next time she opened her eyes, instead of crashing into the dark river, she was still. Her heart was racing at an incredible rate, her palms were sweaty and her forehead was lightly stained with blood. Naomi's panicked eyes darted across the room; it was definitely alien, with circular lights on the walls and a light green hue emitting from the floor. An oxygen mask was carefully placed around her head and resting over her mouth, giving her a steady supply of clean air. She didn't have an IV, however two monitors seemed to be hooked up to study her heart rate, blood pressure, and her brain.

Naomi gently pulled the mask off of her head and forced her sore body to sit upright. In the nearby corner, multiple mirrors were leaning on top of each other, varying from hand and hanging mirrors to vanity and wardrobe mirrors. She picked up a compact makeup mirror and clicked it open; her face was dirty and her hair was longer than she remembered. Her light brown roots were showing while the tips of her hair reached the edge of her shoulders. The scar was back under her chin, it seemed to be retracting her colorful veins away from her brain and into submission. A quick glance to her eyes scared her. Her left eye was still brightly blue, however her right eye had changed color drastically; what once was a light blue iris was now a deep hazel with traces of green. A few blinks quickly convinced Naomi that her new eye condition would not be so easy to get rid of.

"Doctor! You can't save her!" Naomi brought her focus away from the compact mirror and to the metal door where someone was talking loudly. The voice was female, but it wasn't anyone she knew; in fact, it sounded British. Were they talking about her? "Two months is a long time, no one would blame you if you give-"

"No. I will not. I reached her before, she wrote that message in the mirror. She's making progress!"

"That was six weeks ago! Doctor," the British voice replied, apparently she wasn't backing down, "You can't save everyone."

"This one I can save. No. I _have_ to save."

"Why? Her family must be worried-"

"If you won't help me, fine. Leave. Her brain activity has been off the charts and I'm not wasting this chance to-" The Doctor walked through the metal door, a box of wires and strange components. He stepped into Naomi's room and took a moment to assess the red haired girl. Then he finished his sentence, "Wake her."

"What is it?" A short human woman with dark, flowy hair squeezed in the room around The Doctor. Her jaw dropped as she saw Naomi give a weak smile to The Doctor.

"Good morning," Naomi coughed a little from her dry throat.

"Morning," The Doctor said, carefully watching her.

"You're awake," the short, British woman said.

"How?" The Doctor put his box of miscellaneous junk on the floor and began to examine the monitors. "That bacter infection was strong enough to take down a whale; not an Earth one, a Space Whale."

"Oh my God. That isn't possible. Doctor, you said that it wasn't possible," she gasped and followed The Doctor around the room.

"I know; Naomi! What did you do? How did you break free?" he turned his attention to her.

"Hold up," she held up a hand as if that was going to stop the list of questions, "Two months? I've been asleep for two months?"

"Not exactly sleeping. Well, actually, not sleeping at all. The bacter infection kept you in a coma-"

"For two months?!" Naomi shouted her interruption. "What the hell happened to me? Where's my family?"

"They are fine, all fine." The woman said, trying to calm her down. Naomi didn't know this woman, so she gave the short woman a death glare, completely prepared to defend herself if necessary.

"And you are?"

The short woman switched her stare from Naomi to The Doctor, she was clearly displeased. "You don't know me, why doesn't she know me?" Naomi could tell that this woman was getting upset, but after what she just did to get away from the Caribes and Baby Kong, her guard was still holding strong. The Doctor was zipping around the room, fiddling with the monitors and losing himself in his thoughts. The woman stared in a daze at him as Naomi readjusted her legs under her and remained quiet. After the woman narrowed her eyes, she brought her focus back to Naomi. "Do you really not know?"

"Am I supposed to? Apparently, I was in a coma for the last two months-"

"But before! When you were with The Doctor, he didn't say anything about me?"

"Oh Clara," The Doctor leaned over the comfortable bed and held a magnify glass to get a better look at Naomi's newly changed eye, "Now is not the appropriate time. There is still work that must be done."

"Clara!" Naomi gasped, realizing who the short woman was, "I do know you!"

"That's a relief," she said with a bitterly sarcastic tone. She pushed herself off of the bed and crossed her arms, almost like she was pouting. Naomi held her breath as she recognized the beginning of a woman's scorn; this was not going to end well. The Doctor huffed a short sigh and glanced at her from over his shoulder.

"If you aren't going to help, then you might as well leave. Go," The Doctor focused his attention back to Naomi's right eye, slightly leaning in closer.

"How could you have kept her in the dark about me? I know particularly everything about her-"

"Not as much as you think you do."

"-Yet, she barely knows my name! Doctor!" Clara fidgeted her foot, resisting the urge to stomp to get his attention.

"What. What?" He rolled off the bed and faced her, stone faced but eager in voice. "We've never had a nice little chat about friends. It's strictly business; saving a Rutan princess, exploring inside of a Dalek's head," Before The Doctor continued his list of their crazy travels, he narrowed his eyes at Clara, "You're jealous," he concluded.

"Me? Jealous? Of her?" Clara motioned at Naomi, whom was sitting quietly, trying not to make matters worse by speaking her mind, "She was attacked, placed under a coma, because of _your_ connection with her!"

"I'm well aware of what caused her to fall into the coma. However, this is _not_ the appropriate time to be discussing this. If I don't isolate the initial bacter infection and take it out, it could go in remission and resurface at any moment. She nearly died the first time; its more than likely her body can't handle that kind of mental angst a second time."

Naomi was studying Clara, trying to figure out what she was thinking. For a split second, Clara's death stare switched from The Doctor to Naomi; the red haired girl did her best to make it look like she wasn't staring, she did a horrible job of it. Her eyes went straight for the vented floor, avoiding both sets of dark eyes. When neither The Doctor or Clara said anything, Naomi dared to peek her head upward; both of them were looking at her, expecting her to say something. Completely desperate to settle the fighting, Naomi bit her lip and shrugged her tender shoulders, "I really rather like not dying." She was hesitant to say anything, but she knew that if she didn't intervene, they would just continue to argue.

"Now. May I continue?" The Doctor turned to Clara, who was still in a bit of a huff, but didn't know what to do.

"You take me home, as soon as you're done with her," she growled in a low voice. She dropped her arms and walked out of the room.

Naomi raked her fingers through her hair, forgetting that it was longer and needed a brush. The Doctor immediately turned around and grabbed a strange device and clicked it on. He hovered it over Naomi's head, looking through it see examine her skull and brain.

"I'm sorry," she said, unsure of what to say after witnesses the two fight. When The Doctor didn't reply, Naomi elaborated, "For everything."

"None of this is your fault. The Bacter are a microscopic species, most of which have perished in a war long ago. They thrive on potential energy; the longer you travel in time, the more your body possess."

"But I know that Clara has been with you longer than me; why did they target me?"

The Doctor sighed and rolled his eyes while clicking the device off and stepping away from the bed. "What is with you humans and your questions? Can't you just let me help you, without the constant burbarment of inquiries?"

Naomi was silent for a moment, contemplating how she should answer. When she didn't come up with a definite reason, she shrugged her sore shoulders again. "Okay, okay. I'll shut up," she wasn't too upset about The Doctor's outburst, he was an alien after all; what he finds normal probably wouldn't make sense to her. She wanted to tell The Doctor everything that happened in her dreams, however, he clearly wasn't in the mood to listen to her crazy head games. Instead, she shut her mouth and tried to keep as still as possible.

"Thank you," The Doctor said sarcastically.


	13. Chapter 13

It was an awkward discussion with The Doctor and Clara. For Naomi, it was also painful; she felt as though she was walking on broken glass while The Doctor told his story. "The Bacter race have almost gone extinct. Majority of them perishing as collateral in a civil war waged on their planet- moon. They lived on a moon of a planet that was split nearly in half by its original inhabitants. The only thing the two halves agreed on was not to fight on their planet but on the largest moon." The Doctor would occasionally make some hand gesture as to empathize key points. Naomi was sitting on the control chair as Clara, still huffed up about the earlier topic, was standing by the dashboard of the TARDIS; both listening carefully. "Any species would be infuriated, livid, definitely vengeful. I had offered help to them before, to save enough of them to continue to thrive, to live on a different moon. They weren't content with simply surviving; they wanted to punish the original planet for their ignorance and ridiculous war."

"And you stop the fighting, not promote it?" Clara finished, clearly displaying her anger.

The Doctor glared at her with unamused, dark eyes; Naomi knew that they were about to argue again. She would have to play as the child as she silently watched as the "two adults" fought about some nugatory thing. Clara held a wide-eyed stare back at The Doctor, readying herself to attack him with accusations as The Doctor was bracing himself to undergo her harsh words. And Naomi was caught in the middle, trying to stay out as much as possible.

"You're always the big hero," Clara began with a deadly sarcastic tone, "Can never play the villain."

"Clara, you know what I've done-"

"So you haven't told her all the horrible things you've done? All the difficult choices you've had to make, even though both were equally as bad?"

"She hasn't known me long enough to-"

"You picture this image of the perfect Doctor for her!" Clara shouted at him, then snapped her attention to the quiet red hair on the control chair. Naomi flinched slightly as Clara took a step before continuing her train of thought, "He's been lying to you; the entire time."

"What-"

"Clara, it's still too early. If we don't wait the full estimated time, she could lose everything-"

"Estimated!" Clara brought her cruel glare from Naomi back to The Doctor, "You aren't even sure about how long before telling her about it."

"I'm never sure about anything!" The Doctor confessed while slightly raising his voice. Naomi folded her hands together and brought her knees to her chest, positioning herself into a tight ball on the chair.

"Well, isn't that a surprise," Clara rolled her eyes and broke her stern glare at The Doctor. Naomi felt as though she was sitting with spikes in her back. She didn't know what to say or do, so she simply didn't do anything except hold her hands tightly together and rested her chin on her knees.

On the console, she say a modern day phone, it wasn't her phone, so it must have been Clara's. As The Doctor sighed quietly and began to push buttons and turn levers, Naomi silently slid off of the chair and grabbed the phone. It was a force of habit for Naomi to be the friend anyone could count, to be the friend that anyone could call for help; she was always the dependable one. Some of her closer friends even gave her the nickname The Rock, because she always supported them for anything. She knew that Clara wasn't normally like this, however, given these circumstances, she had all reason to be upset. Naomi felt as though they have started off on the wrong foot, so she turned the phone on. Surprisingly, Clara didn't program a personal password so Naomi easily got into her phone and the open app on the phone was the text messages; a man named Danny had sent her a message. It was none of her business, so Naomi quickly exited it and typed in her number.

The Doctor had flown the TARDIS back to Clara's home, probably somewhere in the United Kingdom. "Your stop," he said, refusing to look at Clara. She flipped her hair as she faced him, still scowling.

"You really shouldn't have back-up companions."

"She isn't a 'back-up'."

"Is that why whenever I say I'm too busy you run off and get her?"

The Doctor finally looked up at Clara. The two of them shared a mutual death glare, almost begging the other to say another word. During this interval of motionless threats between them, Naomi felt it appropriate to change her name in Clara's phone from 'Naomi Winter' to 'The Back-Up.' She quickly changed the app back to the texting one and turned the phone to standby.

She cleared her throat which grabbed neither of the two's attention. "Well," Naomi swallowed a fraction of her fear and walked over to Clara, holding her phone out to her. "It was a real delight to meet you."

Clara took a second to give one more silent glare at The Doctor before softening her gaze onto Naomi. "I hope he starts to behave himself," he gave a small nod in The Doctor's direction. Naomi gave a smile, a sign of good faith, and allowed Clara to continue. "We'll see each other again."

"I look forward to it," Naomi raked her hair away from her face and held a false confident smile. She put a hand out to signal a handshake, however Clara replied by wrapping her arms around her in a hug. Naomi took a second to shake off the initial shock and then gave a light squeeze around Clara.

"I'm so sorry," Clara whispered in Naomi's ear before releasing her. With one last concerning look to Naomi, and a warning to The Doctor, Clara walked out of the TARDIS; Naomi couldn't help but see a quick glimpse of her living room.

Naomi sighed quietly as she heard The Doctor click some buttons and move around the main console. Of course, she had an endless list of questions to ask him, but she knew that he was still sore from his interactions with Clara; so, she decided to divert his attention away from humans in general.

"How?" she turned to him and asked the simple word.

"Honestly Naomi, if you haven't realized by now that the TARDIS can land anywhere in the universe-"

"I didn't mean how we got to her house," Naomi rolled her eyes, trying to break the horrible mood The Doctor was in, "You explained who The Bacter was, their story. Even why they attacked me; but you didn't say how they were able to get inside of my head." She approached the console, looking at The Doctor as he turned a sphere on the console. "So, how did they do it?"

The Doctor took a moment before he answered her, clearly trying to calm himself before speaking, "Not yet."

Those words again, Naomi hated when he said those words. It conveys the meaning that he knows a lot more than what he leads her to believe. Technically, he wasn't lying; just procrastinating when he would actually answer her questions. Naomi just wanted straight answers and it was becoming apparent that the longer she traveled with The Doctor, the more complicated things would become. "Okay then," Naomi showed her frustration, but decided to not fight with him, "When will I get to know?"

"Soon," he said, still avoiding her eyes.

She huffed out a heavy breath and came to the conclusion that she would just have to wait until he was ready to tell her. Raking her fingers through her hair, Naomi changed the topic, hoping she wouldn't anger him anymore. "I guess I lost my job then, huh? With being in a coma for two months."

"Not for your timeline. I found you at the very beginning and induced the coma, brought you to the TARDIS, and began to monitor your vitals." Finally, The Doctor looked at the raggedy red haired girl.

"But, I heard my brothers; did you bring them here?"

"I realized that once I put you in the coma that I wouldn't be able to get you out. Attemptions including your family were used but proved ineffective. It's a common belief that coma patients can hear everything around them, I thought maybe their voices would give you more incentive to fight The Bacter."

"Right before you found me, the scar," she used two fingers to trace the thin line under her chin, "It was reacting, hurting me. Will it do it again?"

"That pain wasn't meant for you," The Doctor walked to her and used his hand to gently move her head sideways so he could see the scar better, "Princess Lua, the Rutan we saved, she left a bit of herself in you. Some of her biological defenses, as a precaution. When they emerged in your bloodstream, Lua's DNA began to defend, trying to push the Bacter out of your body."

"So you put me in a coma?"

"What was I supposed to do?" he withdrew his hand and rested it on the console dashboard, "Two sets of alien DNA were waging war in your body and the longer you were conscious, the higher the probability that they would have killed you." He took a second to breath and center himself before continuing his explanation. "However, if you were asleep or in a coma, you could fight off The Bacter without Lua's biology getting in the way."

Naomi slowly worked everything in her mind, taking in everything he told her. It made sense, he had a difficult choice to make; either let Lua's DNA fight off The Bacter and potentially die from it, or have her unconscious mind defend itself and possibly never wake up again. She smiled at The Doctor, she was glad that he chose the option that dealt her less pain. "Thank you," she expressed her gratitude.

"Be careful sleeping for the next few days, relapses are known to happen." The Doctor looked away and started fiddling around with the controls. Naomi held her smile as he flipped two switches, turned a knob, and rotate a lever to activate the TARDIS. The pleasant humming of the time machine began to chime as The Doctor took Naomi back to her apartment.

He looked up at her and noticed her smile at him, "What?" he asked.

"You met my family."

The Doctor straightened up and flared out this jacket to place his hands in his pockets; Naomi had missed when he would do that. "Yes, I did."

"How was that?" she crossed her arms in curiocity.

"Why not ask them?"

Naomi looked at the TARDIS door and wondered where they had landed. "Are we at Donnie's house?"

"No."

"Johnny's?"

"Your's."

"My brothers are there?"

"I told them that once I woke you up, I would bring you back to this exact time. An hour after I dropped them off."

"You sure it's an hour and not a day?" Naomi joked.

"That was your fault."

"Who's the one who flies the TARDIS on a regular basis?"

"Who didn't turn the lever far enough?"

"Who didn't correct my mistake?"

"You're stalling."

"Hell yeah I'm stalling! I've been in a coma for two months; you're quite lucky I remember how to walk."

"Two months on the TARDIS. Four hours out there." The Doctor used his head to nod at the door.

"I don't want to see them, not right now."

"They're your family."

"Will you be with me?" Naomi used her different color eyes to plead to The Doctor.

He seemed to hesitant before replying, "I don't do domestics."

She knew that she was asking a bit too much from him, so Naomi came to the conclusion that she would have to face her brothers on her own. "Right," she said, breaking her eye contact with The Doctor. She walked over to the TARDIS door and pulled it open.

On the other side, Naomi found her dimly lit living room. Her older brothers and Taylor were standing in the kitchen with wide eyes and dropped jaws. Before Naomi could say anything, Taylor ran past Johnny and nearly tackled Naomi with frantic arms. Taylor squeezed Naomi rather tight and sniffled her tears back into her eyes.

"I swore I wouldn't cry," she whispered. The two girls stood in the threshold of the TARDIS, holding each other.

"Taylor, I'm alright. Just like The Doctor said."

"Jesus Naomi," her brothers approached the TARDIS and looked at their younger sister, "How long have you've been in there?" Johnny asked, being the first to notice her undyed roots, cerebro eyes, and thinner physique state.

"Apparently two months," Taylor released Naomi and stepped away to hide her trail of tears on her cheek. Naomi stepped off of the TARDIS while Donnie jumped through the door. "What are you doing?" Everyone poked their heads inside the TARDIS to see Donnie quickly step up to The Doctor.

Donnie stopped within arm's reach and extended a hand to The Doctor, "Thank you; for taking care of her."

Naomi carefully watched The Doctor as he examined Donnie's hand and then his face; she could swear that for a split second The Doctor flashed a glance at her. The Doctor removed his hand from his pocket and grabbed Donnie's, both gripping tightly. "Anytime," he quietly replied.


	14. Chapter 14

It was just before the sun began to rise when The Winter family finally laid down to sleep. Remembering what The Doctor had told her about relapses, she decided to simply lie awake and stare at the ceiling. It was a rough night explaining all that had happened to her, every little bit they wanted to know. It was an entire discussion all on it's own about Naomi's "recklessness" for traveling with a man who wouldn't tell her his real name. It was damn near impossible for Naomi to describe the kinds of things she has seen, the Sontaran spaceship, Princess Lua, Rusty and all of his internal functions, even the TARDIS' psychic interface was incredibly difficult to explain. As she did her best to tell her family everything there was to know about her adventures, they constantly interrupted her with questions, a disappointing sigh, or a harsh remark; she finally understood what The Doctor meant about humans and their never ending need to inquire. Through painful elaboration, Naomi had revealed everything to them. Donnie wasn't pleased about her choices, but he knew better than to try and stop her; considering The Doctor was a time traveling alien. The overall mood Naomi had received from her brothers was that they didn't like the idea of her flying across over time and space with "a strange man with a Scottish accent."

Naomi stared up at the ceiling and allowed her mind to wander around. She couldn't help but think about what Clara and The Doctor were fighting about; what had he lied to her about? What is he hiding from her? She sighed in frustration, she trusted this man. Given, she didn't truly know his name, where he came from, or anything fundamental about him, but The Doctor had already saved her life multiple times. However, she knew he was capable of letting people die; Ross, for example. The Doctor was definitely alien and a close friend, but he could also be dark and down right heartless at times. Naomi knew there was more to The Doctor than what he shows, she just wasn't sure if she could handle her overprotective brothers and her Doctor in her spare time. She knew she was living a double life; the strange thing was that she didn't mind.

Hours later, Naomi went to work with no sleep behind her. She left her family passed out on her couch and living room floor to drive to work in a haze. Her body was weak from being in a coma in the TARDIS for two months, so she was careful to avoid any heavy lifting at work or much running around for the day. Her initial plan was to sit at her desk all day and quietly catch up on her paperwork for the newest security system for a hospital. But, like all the plans she has ever made while being associated with The Doctor, nothing ever really goes as hoped.

Walking into the back entrance to the warehouse, Naomi was immediately flagged down by one of the new technicians. "Hey Naomi, what am I supposed to do with these circuits?"

"What you do with everything else, categorize them and put them away."

"But they're supposed to be with The Quad project; they're extra, but the coordinator wanted at least fourteen and we can't put the remaining five on unless we get another switchboard."

Naomi sighed, rubbing her tired eyes and hiding her newly colored eye from Richard, "I'll send an email to the coordinator. For now, go fiddle with the cameras for project."

"Fiddle? Is that a technical term?" Richard joked while walking away.

She wasn't in the mood to be teased by her co-workers. Honestly, all she wanted to do was sleep, but she feared the relapse. Maybe she should have eaten something on the way to the warehouse; too late now, she would have to wait until lunch now. For the majority of the morning, she was left alone to file paperwork and finalize preparations for the bid of their next project.

Nearing eleven o'clock, right as Naomi poured her fourth cup of coffee, a different co-worker approached her. His name was Edward and about three years older than her, but that didn't stop him from flirting with her in the break room. She saw him coming from the corner of her right eye; this was not the day.

"Hello my dear," he said while leaning on the counter. Naomi looked at him with an unamused expression; it didn't occur to her that he would stare into her eyes. "Woah, what's with your eyes?"

"Oh!" she came up with the most obvious lie, "Colored contacts; I wanted to know what I would look like with green eyes."

"But you only have one in?"

"Yeah, well, I wanted to scare some of the techies, but they didn't notice so," she kept adding into her lie.

"It's barely October and you want to scare those idiots?"

"Tis the season."

"Your hair, it's a lot longer than it was the other day," Edward diverted his eyes from her's and began to examine her roots and the added length to it.

"Uh, no. Not really. No," she shook her head.

"No, no, it's definitely longer," Edward fished inside his cell phone from his jean pocket. Quickly, he found a picture of Naomi from the prior week. "See? That was from last Friday, for Amanda's birthday lunch." He showed her the picture of the usual staff at a restaurant; her hair was like it was before she went into the coma.

"Oh damn," she muttered, grabbing the phone and zooming in on her face, "You can see my roots there too!" She quickly handed the phone back and walked away from the stunned Edward; damn him and his constant need to take selfies. Naomi left the break room and returned to her desk, silently signaling Edward to leave her to her paperwork.

Thankfully, he didn't push the issue, he returned to his wall cubicle in the main office and kept his distance from Naomi for the remainder of the day. Nearing the end of the workday, her desk phone began to ring; it barely ever rang unless it was a technician calling or there was an unhappy project coordinator checking in; both were equally unappealing to her. Reluctantly, she answered the phone on the standard second ring, and greeted whomever it was with the proper greeted.

"Hello, North American Video, Naomi speaking," she said with a slightly eased tone.

"Jesus, don't you ever check your cell?" a female voice sighed into the speaker.

"Ash?!" Naomi gasped into the phone. She didn't even remember that she was at Ash's house when The Bacter attacked her body; of course, now she remembered how Ash slapped her across the face and then left her to the torturous pain of the two sets of alien DNA fight inside her body. Naomi didn't know she could get so upset at someone so immensely fast. "I'm at work, what?"

"I know, but I was wondering if you had plans after work?"

"I don't know," Naomi had a feeling that Ash was going to ask if she could come over and continue to pamper her distrot friend from her horrible break up, and she was not in the mood to deal with Ash's mood swings, "Why?"

"Can I come over? I think we need to talk," Ash was a bit more quiet and hushed than before.

"Really not in the mood-" There was a knock at the back of the warehouse door. Naomi leaned out of her desk area and looked near where the sound came from. She knew her technicians for the day had went home; only the supervisors and assistant managers were left to finish up. Who was knocking? "Hold on," before Ash could say anything, Naomi put the call on Hold and went to investigate. "Hello?" she called out as she rounded the shelves of installation parts. There was another knock at the door. Naomi stood next to the back door and thought who was on the other side; they weren't expecting a delivery until next week, so it wasn't them. What if it was The Doctor? Would he really visit her at work? Well, his visits are more "let's run away for a while and do something incredibly dangerous because we can," instead of "let's grab coffee." Hoping for the best, Naomi pushed the door outward as a wave of sun washed into the dark warehouse. She used one hand to shield her eyes from direct sunlight as she looked to see who it was.

"Don't put me on hold. That's hella rude!" Ash stood just in front of the door, one hand on her hip and the other by her ear holding a phone.

Naomi didn't dilute her obvious disappointment that it was her and not her Doctor. "What?" she asked again.

"I wanted to make sure we talk," she hung up on her cell phone.

"What if I'm busy?"

"You just said that you weren't sure if you-"

"What if I _become_ busy?" Naomi rolled her eyes at her blonde friend.

"Can we just talk at the park when you're done?" Ash used her thumb to indicate to the large open space behind their warehouse and office building.

"Okay, fine, yeah," Naomi was tired of fighting. She wanted to crawl into her bed and sleep. Bickering with Ash would have to stop eventually, might as well get it over with so she would leave her alone later.

Naomi went back inside and finished her preparations for the meeting next morning, and clocked out. She slung her purse over her shoulder and said her final goodbyes to Edward and the other assistant managers. She locked up her warehouse and used the backdoor to get to the park faster than going through the front. Sitting on a bench under the pavillion, Ash was scrolling through her phone when Naomi walked up, hands in pockets and attitude on her face; the pose reminded her of The Doctor's constant demeanor.

"Gonna sit?" Ash patted the stone next to her for Naomi.

"I'll stand," she insisted.

Ash looked at the concrete under her, trying to figure out how to start off. Naomi decided to let her talk because this was what she wanted. It took her a minute to find the right words and begin.

"I'm sorry about last night."

"Which part? Where you accused me of ditching you, when you called me a liar, or was it when you slapped me because I was telling you the truth?"

"You're still sticking with that story-"

"Or maybe it was when you left me, in agonizing pain, for dead?" Naomi carefully watch Ash twindle with her fingers, popping a few and cupping them back together.

"How about all of it?"

The red haired woman stood, nearly motionless, studying her friend. She held her tongue while she tried to think of which path to take; continue to belittle her and make her feel like hell, or forgive her for only acting human? Normally, Naomi would let loose and criticize Ash's unrealistic friendship standards, however since she started her adventures with The Doctor, she has become more understanding and knew that Ash was closed-minded, just like she once was.

"You were only following your Fight or Flight response," Naomi sighed, forgiving Ash for her inability to aid her. "Just, stop calling me a liar."

"Naomi," Ash smiled in disbelief and got on her feet, standing in front of her, "That man from last night wasn't an alien. There's no such thing."

"If you won't believe me, fine," Naomi used one hand to rub her forehead; a headache was starting to form from Ash constantly calling her a liar. "I'll just lie to you-"

"You're lying right now!" Ash crossed her arms and began to get defensive. So much for just talking.

"No, Ash, I really am not."

"Aliens don't exist!"

"Then maybe someone should tell him," Naomi shrugged her slender shoulders, keeping her hands in her pockets.

"This is getting ridiculous," Ash rolled her eyes and threw up her arms in defeat, "How am I supposed to trust you if you lie to me?"

"What happened to just talking?"

"Why are you avoiding my question?"

"Why can't you just accept that The Doctor is an alien?"

"Because he isn't!"

Naomi rubbed her eyes with her hands and sighed, expressing her frustration with this argument that seemed to be running around in circles. "Okay," she said, calming her voice and hiding her face in her hands, "He isn't an alien. He's my rich, older boyfriend. I texted him before I got to your house last night so we could make out behind your neighbor's shed. Satisfied?" Naomi replied with an exaggerated sarcastic tone. The two girls stared at each other, Ash was giving a warning glare as Naomi simply returned with another shrug. A moment passed as the friends held their stares at one another before Naomi's cell phone began to ring. While holding her colored eyes at Ash, she dug her phone out of her small purse and glanced at the caller ID. Who else would it be? "Speak of the devil," she muttered. Answering the phone and keeping it close to her ear, Naomi spoke into the speaker. "Hello?"

"I need you to turn about 32 degrees to your left."

"What?"

"Turn. Move your body approximately 32 degrees to the left."

"Why?" Naomi was careful to take small steps to slightly change direction. Near the middle of the park, behind a tree, she saw The Doctor leaning against it. What a surprise. "You have got to be kidding me," she said, looking directly at him.

"Good. Now, you see me."

"Of course I can see you; your camouflage isn't as accurate as you think it is."

"I am very aware of what I am wearing. What ever possessed you to wear those shoes?"

"What's wrong with my shoes?" Naomi checked her feet, she was wearing her work boots for the warehouse. Ash followed her friend's previous line of sight and easily found The Doctor. "I have to wear these for work-"

"Naomi."

"What?"

"Your friend doesn't look happy to see me."

Naomi glanced at Ash, who was staring right at The Doctor. She could tell that Ash was about to blow up in anger; and Naomi was the only outlet for miles. This was going to be bad. "Oh damn," Naomi quickly ended the conversation with her Doctor and began to brace herself for Ash's rage. "Ashley," Naomi safely put her phone away and attempted to unruffle her friend.

"What the hell is this?!" Ash spun around and stepped into Naomi's face, breaking her comfort zone. "Why the hell is your boyfriend here?!"

"No need to raise your voice," Naomi backed away, praying that Ash's voice didn't carry over to her Doctor. "We're adults. And we will act like them."

"You don't tell me what to do!" Ash thrusted her open palms into Naomi's shoulders, pushing her further back.

Instead of Naomi resorting to violence, she heaved a deep breath and cocked her head at Ash. "Fine, _I_ will act like the adult."

"What makes you so high and mighty? What makes you so better than me?"

"Well, I'm not the one who accuses someone of lying after she has done nothing but provide assistance." Ash's face was becoming red in the face; Naomi noticed her breathing patterns changed and her arm muscles were vaguely tensing, she was going to hit Naomi if she continued. Normally, she would stop, but Naomi knew it was time for Ash to hear how childish she was acting. "And, I'm not the one insinuating a petty argument."

That broke Ash's temper. She flung her open hand at Naomi's face, just like the night before. With narrowed eyes, Naomi immediately caught her wrist. For a split second, Ash was dumbfounded and unable to process the strength of Naomi's left hand. However, the short pause of confusion caused Ash to transform her controlled anger to stupid rage. With her free hand, Ash balled it into a fist and tried to force it across Naomi's other cheek. With hidden strength, Naomi pushed two fingers into the small of her wrist and twisted, leading to a crippling pain shooting up her arm. She continued to twist until Ash fell to her knees, whining in distress.

"You were always a horrible friend," Naomi whispered in Ashley's ear. With one last small twist, Naomi released her once best friend and sighed with disappointment. Keeping her eyes on the browning grass, she walked away from the pavillion and towards The Doctor. She looked up to see him carefully watching her, the lining of his inner coat showing as he kept his hands in his pockets. She gave a weak smile, only for The Doctor to reply with widening his eyes and rushing to her.

"Naomi!" He pointed behind her.

She turned to see Ash running up to her; hunched over like she was about to tackle her. Instinctively, Naomi bent her knees and wedged her feet outward. When Ash was close enough, Naomi dropped to the ground and slipped her shin under her legs. Ash tumbled over her head and rolled onto the dying grass. The Doctor walked around the blonde girl in the dirt and stood next to Naomi.

"I-I didn't know I could do that," she admitted, utterly surprised.

"It wasn't you," The Doctor grabbed her face and gently pulled her eyelids down to look into the white of her eyes. "Princess Lua's defensive genes are protecting you; inside and out."

"But how? That didn't happen the first time Ash slapped me."

"The Rutan's are a mental species, always worrying about the inside of the brain and body. The first time she hit you triggered the DNA to mutant and expand beyond their normal parameters."

"And because they had two months to mutant-"

"They perfected their new defense system." The Doctor concluded while releasing her bottom eyelids. "Wouldn't rely on it too much; probably just got lucky."

"A little luck never hurt anyone."

"Unless it's bad luck."

"I like to be optimistic." Naomi smiled up to her dark eyed friend, whom returned it with a small grin.

"You damn-" Ash muttered swear words under her breath to get Naomi and The Doctor's attention.

"This isn't like her," she explained to her Doctor. "She's a bit on the crazy side, but she's never been so violent."

The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver from his coat pocket and clicked the button towards Ash. The buzzing hummed as The Doctor flicked the tip around Ash. "Oh," he simply said, while looking at the results in his screwdriver.

"Oh?"

"She's beaming with chemicals. A hot mess. But," he brought the device closer to his face so he could get a better look, "These aren't normal. Not organic based. Manufactured."

"Why would Ash have created chemicals?"

"Mhmm," The Doctor switched off the sonic screwdriver and placed it back in his coat pocket. "I need her back at the TARDIS. Run some tests, take some blood," he explained while walking away towards the iconic blue box at the other side of the park.

"What are you talking about?" Ash pushed off of the ground and dusted her jeans off.

"Uh, he needs to give you a check-up," Naomi gave a vague description of what The Doctor needed to do.

"I'm not going anywhere with any of you!" Ash bared her teeth and grounded her feet.

Naomi's only idea to get Ash to come with her wasn't the best, but it was definitely the most efficient way. She shrugged her shoulders and held onto her purse. "That's why Anthony broke up with you; you can't compromise." Unfortunately, it worked. Ash lunged at Naomi, luckily she missed by a few inches. Naomi quickly backed away and used small steps to turn completely around and run in the direction of The Doctor and the TARDIS. Ash was right behind her.

"Doctor! Doctor!" she shouted to get his attention. He turned around, muttering to himself and saw the two girls running. "Key! Gimme the key!" As fast as he could, he fished out a small silver key and tossed it to Naomi as she ran past. Cupping the key with both hands, Naomi caught it and used her legs to take long strides to the TARDIS. She quickly got there and used the key to unlock the time machine. Just as she crossed the threshold, Naomi slid to the side and allowed Ash to charge into the TARDIS.

**((Greetings! Hope you are enjoying the story so far. It was difficult getting to this point, but be prepared; some romance is coming in the next chapter :D And thanks for all the fantastic reviews and praise. You guys are brilliant!))**


	15. Chapter 15

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, Johnny and Taylor are getting married. It was recently discovered that her mother has stage four breast cancer and from her long years of smoking and unhealthy diet, the doctor gave her a few months to live. The chemotherapy was helping, but her doctors found new tumors all over her body; so they particularly stamped the bottom of her foot already. Taylor was devastated and Johnny was doing his best to aid her in this dramatic time. One night, when Taylor fell asleep, her mother told Johnny that her dying wish was to see her only daughter get married. The next day, he bought a silver band and proposed.

The date was set and the wedding was immediately planned. Naomi planned any way she could, from choosing the stationary for the invitations to the florist coordinating the small budget for flowers. It felt as though Naomi was getting married how much input she was giving. Her advice was almost always used. The hardest part was finding a DJ for the reception; she would offer Ash, but The Doctor was still running tests with her on the TARDIS. Everything was hectic for her; all of the small details were pawned off to her, because she had the most "time." Her family thought it was funny to constantly joke about The Doctor's time machine; Naomi refused to use the TARDIS to plan a wedding that wasn't even her's.

As the fateful day was approaching, Naomi was getting nervous about her selections. Since her physical altercation with Ash, she was forced to consult with Taylor's bridemaids for opinions. She never really met any of them and it didn't help that they found her overwhelming amount of influence of the wedding was ill-placed. She made great, cheap decisions, however they were the jealous type and would nit-pick at anything she would do. She felt like she was in high school all over again. Those four years she didn't need to relive. It was only two days before the actual ceremony when everything was finished and laid out. The church was holding the service, the pub eight blocks down was the reception and the dress was hanging on Taylor's door frame. Naomi had one day to relax and she choose to spend it by getting her hair professionally dyed and trimmed. The night before the wedding was the reception dinner and then the big day.

Although she planned nearly half of the wedding, Taylor did not ask her to be a bridesmaid. Naomi was hurt, but understood that it was "Taylor's side" and she was Johnny's sister. She couldn't help but feel a bit used. She found herself asking herself if she had ever done this to The Doctor? Used him and then tossed him aside? With an unknown source of guilt, Naomi tried calling him, however he didn't answer. She hoped he didn't forget about her.

Saturday morning was the unforgettable day. Naomi hadn't slept the night before and was uneasy about being excluded from the ceremony; being forced to watch as a friend. She lightly curled her hair and put a thin layer of makeup on her face; pictures were inevitable. Right after slipping into an elegant dress, her phone began to ring. Her immediate thought was Taylor, she often called her throughout the morning to get rid of her nervous jitters.

"Hey, what's up?" she hid her sigh under her breath.

There was a short pause, then a voice answered, "I could tell you, but it would take three years to explain to you what exactly was above my head," a Scottish voice replied.

"Doctor!" she gasped.

"Don't sound so surprised. You called me first."

"An-and you didn't answer. I figured you were busy with Ash."

"Oh, yeah. I've been pulling teeth up here."

"Not her's, I hope."

"No, of course not," he sounded uncertain but didn't give Naomi a chance to further question it. "What did you need?"

Naomi couldn't bring herself to ask her original question so she immediately improvised a different one. "Johnny and Taylor are getting married and I was going to take Ash, as my plus one. Is she better?"

Another quick moment of silence before he answered, "No. She's still unstable with her hormones."

Without thinking of the consequences, she extended the offer, "Would you like to go?" At first, The Doctor didn't answer; probably thinking of a polite way to decline, because he "doesn't do domestic." "If you don't want to, I get it. I just thought you would need a break from all of her negativity and fowl mouth for a while."

"Of course I would," he said. This surprised Naomi into a nervous silence; she was certain that The Doctor felt it through the interstellar phone call.

"Oh, alright. It'll be at Saint Peter's Church at 1:30," she tried to compose herself to tell him the information.

"I'll be there."

"Great. See you at 1:30."

Their conversation ended and Naomi took a long look at herself in the mirror. Why did she get so flustered? Maybe because she just invited an alien to her older brother's wedding; how often do you get to say that in your life? In all honesty, she was relieved that The Doctor was taking Ash's spot as her plus one.

Since it was almost winter, Naomi wore her black leather boots and a thicker jacket for the crisp wind. She had parked her car around the corner and walked to the main lobby of the old church. A handful of people were already placed inside the rows in the service hall. There were two altar boys who were checking people in and escorting them to their seats. Naomi hung her jacket in the closets provided and took a few sips of bottled water to ease her own nerves. She didn't understand this nervousness that she had, she wasn't getting married, she was just attending with her Doctor. Maybe it was weird because he made it quite clear that he didn't like to get involved with too many of people's personal lives; what changed his mind?

After finishing an entire water, she threw it away and concentrated on her breathing, hoping it would calm her down. Quarter after one was when she just barely heard the hum of the TARDIS land. Without her jacket, she went outside and looked around for the police call box. On the side of the church, behind a line of shrubbery, she was able to see the edge of the TARDIS. Naomi waited on the front stairs of the church for her Doctor. He exited the blue box and used his key to lock the door. When he turned and saw her, she gave a large smile. For the occasion, The Doctor was wearing a different, sharper black suit with a brighter white shirt than what he usually wears. A loose black bowtie-like tie was hanging from his neck and the lining of his coat wasn't red; she missed the red. Even his grey hair seemed to be styled differently, but she couldn't be sure. Naomi patiently waited for her Doctor to approach the church.

When he was close enough, she handed him a bottled water, "Don't you look sharp," she complimented.

He accepted the water and examined her from head to toe; Naomi couldn't tell what he was thinking. "Is that what the bridesmaids wearing?" he sounded a little concerned.

"No, Taylor didn't ask me," she confessed, avoiding The Doctor's dark eyes to better conceal her disappointment.

He must have sensed that she was uncomfortable about the topic, so instead of inquiring further, he held out his elbow, in such a way so he would court her inside the church. "Shall we?" he asked.

She nodded and gently placed her hand on his forearm, allowing him to lead her in. The altar boy escorted the pair to the second row of pews, behind where the seven groomsmen would sit, the best man being Donnie. Shortly after they were seated, The Doctor took a sip of the water and placed it under the bench. The organ began to play and everyone watched as the bridesmaids paired up with a groomsmen walked down the center aisle.

After the third couple, Naomi leaned close to The Doctor to whisper, "I'm glad you're here instead of Ash."

"With that obnoxious instrument, she would scratch your eyes out in a fit of rage."

Naomi covered her mouth, attempting to hide her laughter. He was probably right. At the front of the service hall, Taylor appeared, dressed in a white mermaid gown and a small veil over her face. Her sick mother was being pushed in a wheelchair by an altar boy, so she could give her daughter away at her wedding. Everyone stood up and patiently waited as Taylor and her mother walked down the aisle. Once at the altar, Taylor gave her mother a kiss and walked up to stand next to Johnny. The priest raised his hands and allowed everyone to be seated.

The ceremony was short, but when it got to Johnny and Taylor exchanging vows, it took a bit longer. Suddenly, The Doctor leaned close to Naomi and said, "You should be up there," he nodded at the altar.

She thought he meant to be a bridesmaid, so she quietly replied with, "It isn't a big deal, really," trying to not get anyone's attention.

For a moment, they held each other's gaze; The Doctor was very confident in whatever he was referring to and Naomi was uneasy about his stare. She decided to ignore it and pay attention to her older brother. The second groomsmen, his name was Kyle, he quickly stepped out of line and stood next to Johnny. A slight murmur from the crowd lead Johnny to stop reading his vows and look at his friend.

"What are you doing?" Naomi saw him whisper.

"You stole her from me!" Kyle shouted, making the crowd fall silent.

"Back off, man!" Johnny immediately shoved Kyle away from him; much like Ash had done to Naomi. "She's mine! I own her now!"

"Excuse me?" Taylor chimed in, "You _own_ me?!" It was clear that she was deeply offended and made her voice echo across the silent crowd. "I'm not property!"

"You belong with me; you always had!" Kyle defended himself.

"Screw you! She's mine!"

"Who do you think you are?"

Soon, the altar became a place of war; all of the bridesmaids and groomsmen joined in on the argument. The crowd started to become restless and talking over one another. Near the back of the church, Naomi heard a loud thud and multiple gasps; someone had started a fight. She watched in horror as the men in the back beat on each other and as the altar was becoming unrecognizable. Taylor had slammed her bouquet on the floor and raising her voice. Johnny and Kyle were mere inches from the other's face, shouting obscenities. Even the priest was getting red in the face. Naomi quickly stood on the pew to look over the crowd to examine the remaining of the gathering.

From young teenagers to experienced adults, everyone was shouting and arguing with at least one other person. The babies in the strollers and carriers cried at the awful noise. Toddlers were getting terrified by the adults screaming at some ridiculous argument and hid their faces in their hands. The perfect wedding had turned into a nightmare. Naomi's jaw dropped as she studied the faces of every adult; they all seemed to resemble characteristics of Ash.

"Oh my God," she muttered as she jumped off of the bench, facing The Doctor; he was the only other person who wasn't affected by this universal surge of anger. "We have to do something," she pleaded with him. With an unknown expression, he stared deep into Naomi's eyes, not answering her. "Doctor! Please!"

"Anything," he finally replied.

Naomi was confused by his response. "What?"

Instead of explaining, he grabbed her hand and quickly lead her out of the pew. She thought he was going to the altar and stop the fighting, but he turned the opposite direction and kept her close to him as he forced his way through the screaming adults. Avoiding any flying fists, The Doctor escaped through the fire exit and brought Naomi with him.

"Doctor, what are you doing?" she asked as he nearly dragged her to the TARDIS. "We have to help them!"

"No," he said firmly, looking deep into her eyes for a moment before unlocking the TARDIS door, "I have to help _you_." He pushed open the door and forced Naomi inside. Faster than she could realize what he was doing, he ran to the controls and began to twist knobs and push buttons. The hum of the TARDIS began to sound as The Doctor dashed around the center console moving random levers.

"Doctor, Doctor no!" Naomi followed him as he rolled a sphere and pumped a lever sideways. "We can't leave!" She grabbed his hand and held it tight, not allowing him to touch the controls.

He looked at her in shock, but he also seemed hurt by her outburst. "You humans," he said, filled with mixed emotions of anger and pleading, "All I do is protect you. You can't expect me to save them all!" He snapped his hand free and stepped away from Naomi. She was completely and utterly confused by The Doctor's mood swings. "I made a promise, a _vow,_ to always protect you. I can't protect them; but I won't let you down. Never."

She stared at The Doctor, wondering what was happening to him. Her gaze was stuck at his dark eyes again; they seemed a bit deranged, just like after Ross was killed. Her body called upon those emotions and made her muscles clamp up. This wasn't her Doctor. How was he planning to protect her if she feared him?

"Don't," he said to her.

"What? Don't what?" she was on the verge of tears from fear. The wedding had suddenly become a mosh pit and she was losing control so fast, she didn't know what to do, especially if The Doctor won't help her.

"Don't look at me like that," he said, even toned. But Naomi knew he was hiding something.

"What am I supposed to do?!" she demanded. He didn't answer, simply stared at her as she continued. "My family is down there, fighting each other. All those people are attacking one another for no reason. This was a wedding, a _wedding_, and everything just turned! Everything became bitter and harsh," she bit her tongue to avoid tears rolling down her cheeks. She took a moment to calm her breathing before continuing. "And the one time I ask for help, you don't. You refuse!"

"I have to keep you safe," he said.

"Flying me away from my family and scaring the hell out of me isn't keeping me safe!"

She broke her desperate gaze with The Doctor, sat at the control chair, and buried her face in her hands, trying her best to not cry. Alas, eventually every bridge breaks; and Naomi lost her self control and silently sobbed. She didn't want to, she knew it wouldn't change The Doctor's mind. But she just couldn't contain herself anymore. What started off as a beautiful day for her brother and girlfriend quickly turned sour. After each cheek had a definite trail of tears, she heard The Doctor cautiously step to her. Gently, he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave a light squeeze.

"You once told me that every good man had his faults," he explained; Naomi didn't look at him just yet. "Am I still a good man?"

Taking a deep breath to calm her frantic heart, Naomi whipped the tears away and stared up at the grey haired alien. Written on his face, Naomi saw traces of her old Doctor; of course he was a more difficult at times and hard to get along with, but she preferred him over this man. This was not The Doctor. However, as soon as she locked eyes with him, the expression on his face altered. Apparently, The Doctor had noticed this change in himself; he pulled away from Naomi.

"What are you doing?" she asked, getting better control of her tear ducts. His eyes were wide and transfixed on her own eyes. He seemed to restrain himself at the main console with both hands behind him; still looking at Naomi. "Doctor, what has gotten into you? You're acting so strange," she swallowed a fraction of her fear and sniffed her nose.

The Doctor didn't answer immediately, but when he did she couldn't understand him, muttering under his breath.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" she demanded.

"Eyes! Eyes! Your eyes!" he echoed to her across the TARDIS. "Turn away! Don't let me see your eyes!" She narrowed her colorful eyes at him, begging him to elaborate. "Now! Look away!" he pleaded with her.

She used her feet to spin the cozy chair around and looked down the spiral staircase. The Doctor didn't say anything, so Naomi simply waited for his next instruction. Another moment passed before she heard his familiar foot steps on the metal TARDIS floor. She didn't have to see him to figure out where he walking; he was circling the console, probably looking for something specific. His pace quickened as Naomi figured that he was searching around the outer rims of the initial control floor. She could just barely hear him muttering to himself, however she couldn't make out any words.

"Why am I staring at a wall, Doctor?" she asked, recovering her normal heart rate and ending her tears. "What's wrong with my eyes?"

"They're _your_ eyes," he said, tossing scrap metal over his shoulder and rummaging through a box on the second floor library.

"Care to not state the obvious?"

"They need to be covered," he said, continuing to throw things aside. "I need _something._"

Naomi saw The Doctor run around the second floor and glance down at her; their eyes meeting. He immediately stopped and stared at her. She looked at his previous path to see books laying on the floor and miscellaneous junk all over the place. "Doctor, what do you need?"

No answer, just blankly staring at her. Naomi raked her curly hair and bit her lip, trying to figure out his mind. She realized that he wasn't searching for a particular thing. He had first starting behaving in a strange way while he was looking directly at her. He had mentioned that he had to only protect her, while gazing into her blue and green eyes. When she had hid her eyes from him, The Doctor was normal. Something about her eyes made him act in such a weird way; obviously, he was looking for some sort of blindfold.

She looked back to The Doctor, who was standing stone still, never taking his gaze off of Naomi's eyes. As creepy and uneasy as it was, she finally found something they could use. The red haired girl stood up and slowly walked up the stairs to the library. The Doctor carefully watched her calculate every step because she was wearing heels. Naomi turned to The Doctor and approached him cautiously; she didn't know if he was resisting the urge to throw a punch, it wouldn't surprise her because everyone back at the church were crazy angry. But, deep down, Naomi trusted The Doctor not to hurt her; he could scare her to death, but she knew he would protect her. She stopped right in front of him and hesitated, looking for any signs of him possibly proving her wrong; they weren't any. With delicate fingers, Naomi grabbed hold of his loose bowtie and gently pulled it downward to untie it.

"What are you doing?" he asked, quiet of voice and short of breath; she picked up on his nervousness.

Calm and relaxed eyes looked up to The Doctor's dark orbs as Naomi answered, "What I've always done; help." She broke her gaze at him and yanked the bowtie away from his collar.

As if automatically, The Doctor's hands shot to Naomi's waist, as if he was trying to hold her back, "Naomi," he said. She ignored what he did and said; instead, she wrapped the black bowtie around her eyes and tied a simple knot at the back of her head. Through the fabric, she just barely see anything, only certain things that were highly illuminated. She dropped her hands to land on to The Doctor's, patting them lightly to reassure him.

"See? It was right under your nose this whole time," she slightly joked. Naomi was a little worried as to why he placed his hands on her waist and why he was panicking a bit; but now that her eyes were covered, he should start behaving himself.

She couldn't quite see the features of his face, but she was hoping that he was becoming normal again.

"Naomi," he said with a hushed voice, "I'm about to do something. Stay completely still," he told her, putting a lot of emphasis on the last three words.

"Okay," she replied with a slight questionable tone.

The Doctor removed his hands from her waist and allowed her arms to fall by her side. She vaguely heard The Doctor take a deep breath before sliding his right hand to trace her scar on her chin. He guided it to cradle under her ear, giving her steady post to rest her head. This was also weird, but she had agreed to stand still. Just as she was about to question the new placement of his hand, he immediately leaned down to Naomi and pressed his lips to her's.


	16. Chapter 16

With wide eyes and stiff hands, it took every fiber of her being to not back away from The Doctor. That was the last thing she was expecting from him; in fact, that thought had never occurred to her. What felt like twenty minutes with interlocked lips with The Doctor was really a few seconds in reality. Her heart was beating out of her chest and her muscles were tease. He pulled his face away from her's only to rest his forehead against her brow. They both exhaled loudly as The Doctor moved his hand from under her ear to her shoulder. "Naomi," he said, "You. Are. A. Genius!" He stepped away from her to dash around her and down the stairs.

"Wha-" she gasped, completely and utterly shocked into silence.

"Don't just stand there!" he called from the lower floor, "We have a wedding to save!"

Grabbing at the railing, she leaned on the metal rods to steady her weak legs and face outward to the console, not sure where he was standing. Her mind was a jumbled mess attempting to process what had just happened; their lips touched and he cradled her head, what? Even paying her a compliment was rare, but that was like something out of science fiction! What in the world happened? "Doctor," she quietly said, almost regaining her senses.

The hum of the TARDIS started up as the clicking of buttons below her continued, "I have a theory. What ever Ashley ingested must be the same thing the attendees have as well. Question: how did they get it?"

"Doctor, I-"

"Answer! It was given to them! But who would-"

"Doctor!" she shouted for him to stop his usual rant about conclusions and deductions.

"What?" he landed the TARDIS and ceased running around the console.

"What the hell was that?!" she used the railing as a guide to lead herself cautiously to the stairs.

"Referring to?"

"That kiss" she said as she stepped down the stairs and reached the same floor as The Doctor.

"Oh, that," he replied. Although Naomi had trouble seeing his facial expressions, she was able to identify him fidget a little. He cleared his throat and explained, "It wasn't."

"It wasn't what?" she pried.

"Osculation. It was definitely a molecular transfer with oral copulation."

"Why do I not believe you?"

"Believe me or not. You asked me to save those people at the church, so that's what I'm going to do."

"Was it necessary?" she took a few quick steps to the main console and held onto the edge, vaguely watching The Doctor. "And, that bit where you held my waist, was that imperative? Why did you change so oddly when you looked at my eyes?"

Through the tie, she saw The Doctor look down to a keyboard on the dash. His hand were fumbling with some keys as if he was trying to display that he was busy. However, Naomi knew that he was thinking. After a moment for him to think, The Doctor faced Naomi and flipped out his jacket to put his hands in his pockets.

"How would you like me to reply?"

"Honesty is the best policy."

"Not for me."

"For once, can you just tell me?"

The Doctor glanced at his shoes and readjusted his feet, slightly bracing himself. He heavied a breath then cleared his throat. Just as he opened his mouth to explain, there were knocking at the TARDIS door. Immediately, The Doctor spun around and rushed to the door. Naomi dropped her head to the dashboard and lightly banged her forehead on the edge; why was getting straight answers from him so difficult?

"Who's there?" he called from the inside.

"Officer Burkman with the Woodwick Police Department."

The Doctor opened the door and poked his head to greet his guest. Naomi slowly raised her head to get a glimpse of the police officer.

"What are the police doing at a church?"

"There have been disturbances all over the Lincoln county; we need to escort all civilians to the police station."

"Why to the police station?"

"It's standard precaution." Officer Burkman began to look around The Doctor to examine the inside of the TARDIS. Naomi slipped the tie off in order for her to better observe their interactions. "Whatcha got in there? I don't remember a police call box next to Saint Peter's."

Without a glance at Naomi, The Doctor eased himself out of the TARDIS. He was able to lure Officer Burkman away from the blue box and close the door behind him. Naomi could just hear the two men have a small discussion as they walked away.

Disturbances? All over the county? What was happening? Could what occurred at the church happen anywhere? The Doctor was ranting about someone giving them something to make them lash out. Did he really expect her to investigate with no leads? Suddenly, she heard a female voice over a speaker.

"Doctor, can I get some of that Desin Water now?"

It was Ash. He still had her on board! Naomi rotated the monitor and saw her blond friend on the camera; she was in a hospital like room she was in while she was in the coma. Naomi immediately ran down the stairs to find Ash. By her surprise, she was able to run straight to her friend.

"Ash," she called as she dashed into the room, a little relieved that The Doctor hadn't pulled all of her teeth out.

"Naomi?" her friend was weak and frail. Heavy sweat was rolling off of her forehead and her skin was pale and sickly looking. "Wha-what are you doing here?"

"Good God," Naomi was slightly horrified of what she saw. "What has he been doing to you?"

"Nothing. Said he was just recording my symptoms."

"From what? Please tell me he wasn't experimenting on you," she doubted that The Doctor would test on Ash, but she figured she should ask for good measure.

"I'm not sure. But, can you get me some of that Desin Water? I've been craving it forever and he wouldn't get me any."

"Yeah, well he wouldn't even buy me lunch," Naomi walked around the room and found normal looking medical devices, a stethoscope, a magnifying glass with light, even a microscope. On a counter across the room, a bottle of water marked as "Desin," was standing unopened. "He hasn't been giving you water?"

"No, but I just want that kind," she replied sickly.

Naomi retrieved the water and handed it to her. "So how are you feeling?"

"A little better, not so angry any more." She gulped down a few chugs of the water and sighed with satisfaction. Once she looked at her red haired friend, her tone changed, her brows forwarded and her face grew into one of disgust. "What the hell do you want?"

"Woah there," Naomi held up her hands in defense towards Ash. "What's with that face?"

"Your damn boyfriend kidnapped me!"

"He didn't kidnap you," Naomi clarified, "He's helping you through your mood swings-"

"I'll show you mood swings!" Ash lunged at Naomi. She jumped back and immediately ran to the door. Slamming her palm on the circle panel on the wall next to the frame, Naomi was able to lock the hospital door behind her, restraining Ash inside. Ash used her fists to bang repeatedly on the metal door. "Open this damn thing!"

"Oh no," she called through the metal, "How stupid do I look?"

"You want an honest answer?"

"Nah," Naomi shrugged off her hostile friend and turned to leave, "I'm going to find The Doctor now."

"Don't you dare leave me here!" She pounded on the door again. "You're just like that damn boyfriend of your's!" Ash continued to bang her fists on the metal, shouting at Naomi who only replied with a wide smile as she walked back to the main console room.

When she reached the control room, Naomi first wrapped The Doctor's loose tie around her flowy hair, in case she would have to use it again. It looked like a makeshift headband with a loose bow on the side. She was about to walk out of the TARDIS when her boot clanged on something on the floor. Glancing down, Naomi found a small silver key. It was a TARDIS key. Picking it curiously up, Naomi wondered if he had intentionally dropped it for her. As if someone whispered her name, the red haired girl turned around and faced the computer screen; he had left her a message. "Don't forget to lock her up," it read. She couldn't help but wonder if he meant the TARDIS or Ash. Knowing The Doctor, it was probably both.

Naomi walked out of the police blue box and carefully locked up the TARDIS. She examined the church's small lawn and decided to investigate the inside. Slowly walking into the lobby, she paced herself as she entered the service hall. It was eerie quiet, some benches were turned upside down, a few holes were punched into the walls, flowers were scattered all over, even the altar was a mess. On the middle of the wreckage, was the small pillow holding Johnny and Taylor's wedding rings. Purely for sentimental reasons, she retrieved the tiny black box in order to give it back to her brother and girlfriend when she found them. Before leaving the church, Naomi grabbed her jacket and placed the little black box in her pocket.

The last thing she remembered The Doctor was talking about with Officer Burkman was taking civilians to the police station; so that's where to start. The county police station was about four miles away and there was no way she was about to walk that in her nice dress and fancy boots. Turning the engine in her car on, Naomi drove out of the parking lot and down the street. It was strange seeing the street completely empty, no one was walking the sidewalk, all of the vehicles were deserted, somehow the buildings were untouched by human interaction. This feeling of utter loneliness reminded Naomi of her adventure while in the coma; she did not like to be alone anymore.

On the way to the station, Naomi passed a street that wasn't as vacant as the rest. At the end of the road, there was a police blockade. They were facing the opposite direction holding a long range of guns, from handguns to rifles and everything in between, the officers were refusing any one access passed the blockade. Naomi pulled her car over and got out to observe the officers and bystanders. Why were they there? On the other side, it appeared that media cameras and reporters were conducting a news segment.

"Alright," she muttered to herself, "There is something seriously wrong if the law enforcement have to use rifles and shotguns. Why is the media here?"

Just before Naomi was going to leave, she saw that one of the bystanders crawled underneath the stanchions and shoved an officer aside. Two more officers called after the man as he ran down the road. Another officer quickly aimed his rifle and squeezed the trigger. The man began limp incredibly fast and slammed onto the cold asphalt. Naomi immediately hid behind the corner and covered her mouth so she wouldn't scream in terror. What were they doing? Why did they kill him instead of following protocols? She was trembling with uncertainty, but she knew that gawking at the dead man wasn't going to fix anything.

"Okay, okay," she whispered to herself, calming her heart down, "You can do this. Just get in your car and find The Doctor. That's it. Simple. Walk away and don't-"

"Freeze!"

Naomi peeked up to find a different officer pointing a handgun at her. Instinctively, she threw her hands up in automatic surrender.

"You're under arrest," he explained to her.

Her first thought was to question him, demand to know why she was being arrested; however, after hearing about everyone in the county having anger management issues and seeing his fellow officer gun down a fleeing man, she knew better than to test her luck.

"Oh damn," she huffed out a panic breath.


	17. Chapter 17

The interrogation room was uncomfortable, a small desk was placed in the middle of the room and a large one-way mirror was overlooking. Naomi never thought she would ever get arrested; let alone be interrogated. What was the point? Why not just take her to the rest of the civilians? Was The Doctor in interrogation as well? And, she was never read her Miranda Rights, so she would have to use that trump card at the right time to get out of whatever this situation is. While waiting, Naomi rubbed her sore wrists and noticed that the officer who brought her here, Officer Digery, had left perfect finger bruises on her arms, then through her coat. He wasn't gentle in the least. Another thing she could use against these cops. Even though she was in her hometown, she felt as though she was going on another insane adventure with her Doctor.

It wasn't long before an officer opened the door and stepped inside; he was holding a thin manilla folder and a bottle of water. Barely looked at Naomi while he sat across the desk from her, placing the water within arm's reach for her. She immediately became stone faced and steadied her breath; it was taboo for a police officer to conduct the interrogation, that was left for the detectives. His badge read "Burkman," that was the name she heard back at the TARDIS. He was the last person who saw The Doctor. Naomi came to the conclusion that she would have to reverse interrogate him to get clues about The Doctor's whereabouts. She sensed something off about this man; why was he relatively calm while everyone in the district were causing disturbances and starting fights?

"You warm? Need a cigarette?" he asked while pulling a pack of thick cigarettes out of his jacket pocket.

"No," she answered simply and did her best to conceal her true intentions.

He glanced up to her and raised an eyebrow. "To which question?"

"Both," she held out her arms and showed Burkman her fresh bruises from Digery. "Your friend was a bit rough."

"Do you know who did that to you?" he asked while obnoxiously closing his lighter. He took a drag from a cigarette and put the pack and lighter back in his pocket.

"Officer Digery," she said while reclining her arms away from Burkman and rolling down her sleeves..

"So, you're cold too?" Instead of answering, Naomi nodded. "A'right," he took off his jacket and handed it to her. She grabbed it and wrapped it around herself to cover her own coat. With quick hands, she slipped Burkman's lighter out of his pocket it and dropped it into her own. "Sorry 'bout the heating, we've been calling to get it fixed for a while now."

Burkman cleared his throat and opened the folder that was resting on the desk. "According to Officer Digery, he found you trying to break into a car on Parkerson's Street. Care to tell me what happen?"

"That was _my _car, which he took the liberty of shooting the tires, breaking my lights, and smashing my windows." She cocked her head as she watched Burkman begin to write notes. "Is it proper protocol for officers to interrogate suspected car thieves?"

He glanced up at Naomi after writing a few sentences, twiddling the pen in between his fingers. "We're a bit short handed. So, can you prove-"

"What are the detectives doing?"

Naomi could tell that Burkman was not enjoying her intelligent questions. However, he answered with short, undescriptive responses. "They have their assignments; I have mine."

"You've been promoted to detective, then? Congratulations," she said with an accusatory tone.

"Not yet," he said while adding notes on his pad. "When Officer Digery was smashing your headlights, did you try to stop him?"

"How was I suppose to? I saw a different officer gun down an innocent just for crossing the barrier. Digery isn't the smallest cop on the force either. Why is there a barrier set up on Parkerson's?"

Burkman wrote more before answering with, "There was a riot."

"A riot as big as the district?"

He looked back to Naomi; apparently, he was realizing that she was different. She was piecing some things together. He narrowed his eyes and interlocked his hands together, attempting to intimidate her. However, after facing Daleks, Sontarans, and The Bacter, Burkman held no chance.

"Are you insinuating something?"

Naomi uncapped the water and took a big gulp, to display that she was now in control of the questions. She kept a stern face as she met Burkman's glare. "Just wondering where everyone is-"

"Looking for someone?"

"Quite a few people, actually," she confessed, still keeping an aura of dominance in the room. Leaning on her elbows, Naomi drew in closer to Burkman. "One, in particular. And, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about."

"Will I?"

Naomi couldn't tell if he getting intimidated by her, but she had to keep going, at least find where he had gone. "A man."

"There's plenty men in Lincoln County."

"How many John Smith's are there?" she heard him use that alias before, when they traveled through her timeline to look for the monster under her bed. She only hoped that he used it again so she can find him.

"How am I suppose to know a statistic like that off the top of my head?"

"This one is different," she explained. "Taller, grey hair, Scottish. Prefers if people call him 'The Doctor'." Naomi saw Burkman fidget ever so slight when she mentioned The Doctor; he knew something. Satisfied, she leaned back on the chair and took another sip of water.

"Who-"

"Just 'The Doctor;' that's how he likes it."

"No. You."

Naomi gave him a questionable look and tilted her head. "Me? Doesn't your folder tell you who I am? You took my fingerprints-"

"And our computers couldn't identify you. You gave us the name of 'Naomi Winter,' but your fingerprints say that you don't exist. No birth certificate, no address, no workplace; nothing. Who are you?"

Naomi cracked a small grin and couldn't resist the urge to answer with, "I'm The Back-Up."

Burkman's beady eyes popped open wide as he realized something. He quickly gathered the folder and jumped up, causing his chair to fall behind him. Within four steps, Officer Burkman was out of the room. Naomi ran after him, but just missed getting out of the room; the door immediately slammed shut. At a desparate attempt to escape, she turned the knob to find that it wouldn't budge. It was worth a shot.

"Oh damn," she muttered as she stepped away from the door. Well, it wasn't a complete waste of time; she learned that her fingerprints changed from the last time she was here. And, Officer Burkman doesn't like the idea of The Doctor having back-up; what did The Doctor figure out? Whatever it was, it must be important, otherwise Burkman wouldn't have left in such a hurry.

The red haired girl took off the officer jacket and placed it on the desk; she was never cold, she just felt like the lighter would come in handy later. Nevertheless, the first thing she had to do now was get out of a police interrogation room. Much easier said than done. Honestly, she half-expected The Doctor to leave another copy of his screwdriver lying around. That's how she gets out of nearly all of her "locked in a room" situations. With a steady look at the surrounding walls, she found the one air vent in the middle of the ceiling; it was fastened tight and she knew she couldn't squeeze her fingers in there. So, The Doctor didn't leave a screwdriver for her. Her last option was the one-way mirror; however, she was pretty sure that it was bullet-proof. Well, all of her areas of escape were blocked. This would prove more difficult than she anticipated.

As she raked her hand through her hair, the lights switched off. In the interrogation room, Naomi was left in darkness. However, through the one-way mirror, the room on the other side was lit up. The dull light filtered into Naomi's dark room. She snapped her head at the newly revealed room, there was a small panel of switches and a microphone. At the panel of simple controls, stood her Doctor. Naomi smiled at him; she should have known he would listen in her interrogation. Lightly tugging the tie off of her head, Naomi quickly wrapped it back around her eyes; she could tell already that whatever was causing The Doctor to act strange when he looked at her eyes still had some influence over him. After tying it around her head, Naomi took easy steps to the window, placing a hand on the glass.

"Found you," she gave a cheeky grin.

The Doctor took a moment to get out of that altered state and used the microphone to speak to her. "I won't be able to hear you. I can lip read fairly good."

"Great, so are you going to get me out of here?"

"I'm sorry. But I can't." Naomi opened her mouth to protest, but he quickly continued, "I've been poking around. It's the water!"

"What water?"

"That Desin water!" she could barely see The Doctor point at the bottle on the table. "There's microprocessors inside of the molecules! Someone's been giving this to the entire county. Making them drink it and studying how the human brain uses hormones to alternate moods and behavior."

"The Bacter?" she guessed.

"No, someone else. They've learned a lot about you humans. Enough to trigger the constant secretion by the adrenal medulla of the catecholamines, epinephrine by the adrenal cortex of glucocorticoids-"

"Jesus Christ," Naomi scoffed at The Doctor rambling out facts and his scientific terms; she didn't understand any of it. "English would be greatly appreciated."

She wasn't sure, but she guessed that he rolled his eyes at her request for a more simple explanation. "Anger! They're controlling everyone by making them angry!"

"Was that so difficult?"

"Almost painful."

"Wait, I've been drinking the water too; why isn't it affecting me?"

The Doctor took a moment to choose his words appropriately. He cleared his throat before answering, "It only works on pure genetics."

"What?"

"Naomi, think about it. Princess Lua's defense genes, The Bacter. Even your fingerprint has changed."

"What are you saying, Doctor?" she feared for his next response.

She heard him sigh before answering, "Genetically, you're not a human."

Naomi let her hand slip from the glass and fall to her side. Her whole world seemed to change in a heartbeat; everything moved at different tempos. Somehow, she wasn't exactly surprised by this conclusion; he had mentioned Lua and The Bacter's influence in her body, but she just never really pieced it together. She was changing from the inside out. Naomi turned away from the window and sat on a chair. Without reason, Naomi pulled the tie off of her eyes and decided to look at The Doctor. Maybe with this new information she didn't have to hide her colorful eyes from him. As soon as their eyes locked, she could tell that she was wrong. However, she didn't really care if he acted differently; she was changing, maybe he could too.

"If I'm not a human," she kept her voice calm as she finished her question, "Then, what am I?"

The Doctor straightened himself and dusted off his coat. "Honest answer?"

"Please."

He took a moment to think of an answer. Naomi didn't want him to lie to her. He's lied to her enough, she deserved at least this for a clean-cut answer. During their travels, she was faced with many characteristic questions, she has always done "the human" thing to do. Now, she wasn't even that. Did that mean Donnie and Johnny weren't her brothers anymore? Her entire life has had them in it, she didn't want them to leave just because their blood was different. What did she have to cling onto now? Her family wasn't her family anymore. She was alone. She was the only one of her kind. Naomi silently wished that The Doctor would say that she wasn't the only one like this, that she wasn't alone in the universe.

Despite Naomi's busy mind, The Doctor replied with one word. That word changed everything her entire prescriptive. He said the one thing she had never considered him to say. And it was the only thing she needed to hear. It was what brought her back from her depression. It was what gave her life and a new sense of purpose. Of course, she learned a lot about The Doctor by that one word. And her metaphorical eyes had been opened.

The Doctor had replied with, "Mine."


	18. Chapter 18

It seemed so obvious to Naomi now. She felt like an idiot for not realizing everything, all the subtle hints she's heard, the plain-as-day kiss, even Lua's foreshadowing into her future made more sense. Her phrase from Lua was vague at the beginning, but now it was as clear as a crystal. She would mean the world to someone; she never thought it would be The Doctor's world. Naomi replayed their conversation after searching for monsters under her bed, he had mentioned doing research on butterflies and he was holding his abdomen. She was giving him butterflies in his stomach. Leave it to The Doctor to take a literal meaning to the saying. The next thing she remembered was when she was in the coma. Taylor was pleading with him to take her to a hospital and The Doctor said that he wouldn't let another doctor near her. Finally, the kiss. He denied it any meaningful significance, but according to Clara, he's being lying to her.

What happened immediately after The Doctor's confession was a bit of a blur. Naomi knew that the lights in the interrogation room were turned back on and she couldn't see The Doctor through the one-way mirror anymore. However, once the lights were back on, Officer Burkman reentered the room with Officer Digery. The two of them easily restrained Naomi and nearly dragged her out of the interrogation room. As they pulled her away from the room, she couldn't help but whisper the words, "Find me," to The Doctor.

They brought her to the edge of the hallway with a metal door bolted shut.

"What the hell is that?" she asked. Naomi knew that this was a recent addition to the police station; it wasn't here the last she was hear to clear up the missing person's issue. "Solitary confinement?"

"Quite the opposite," Burkman used three different keys to unlock the door and pulled the lever away from the wall. She couldn't help but be reminded of the medieval dungeon chambers just by the look of the door.

"It won't do you any good," she said with a shaky voice, "I'll still get out of there."

Burkman used his entire body to pull the door open. A deep stone staircase lead downward into near darkness. That was never a good sign. Naomi swallowed her confidence, but still held a glare at Burkman. He turned around and brushed his hands together to get rid of dust. With one hand, he grabbed Naomi's neck and gave her a threatening squeeze. "I'd like to see you try," he bared his teeth at her. "That door is heavier than you. You could never move it."

"I like a challenge."

"Put her in there," Burkman released her neck and ordered to Officer Digery.

Officer Burkman stepped aside to watch Digery put her over the threshold and down a few steps. Naomi turned just as the two officers closed the heavy door behind her. Through thick metal, she heard multiple locks click shut and the lever grind against the wall as it was being brought back into it's place. Well, from one inescapable room to a medieval dungeon. So much for the perfect wedding.

Since her options were limited, and her path to escape was clearly blocked, she had no where to go but down. Taking a deep breath, Naomi leaned against the stone wall to slid her boots to the lower stairs. Her wrists were being cut raw by the handcuffs and her awkward position to steady herself. However, she fought the pain and reached the last stair. What she found at the bottom of the staircase was a peculiar sight. Naomi had found the missing people from Lincoln County. All of the citizens were laying on the floor, a few with blankets and others with a jacket for a pillow. A few lights were hanging from the ceiling to illuminate the large chamber. There were no chains or tortuous equipment; however, that didn't seem to prevent the reek of drying blood to liter the air. Lining the walls were people sleeping. Most were clumped together in small groups, either family, friends, co-workers, or by another margin that Naomi didn't know about; she was just guessing. The stone walls provided an echo surface for the selective few who snore incredibly loud. Naomi slightly cringed at the snores from across the room and stepped further in.

In order for Naomi to identify her family, she had to get very close to faces of the sleeping people. After examining a few groups, she realized that they all looked angry. Did the Desin water still affected them while they were unconscious? Speaking of the effects of the altered water, did it affect The Doctor? He had said that it only worked in pure genetics; and he was a pure Time Lord. Did that count? Was that the reason why he was acting weird around her? It barely made sense, but she didn't have an answer as to why her eyes trigger such a dramatic change in him. Hopefully he figured it out and would tell her when they were done with Officer Burkman.

Down the center aisle, on the left hand side, Naomi was able to just make out a white gown. She bounced up and rushed to the dressy woman on the floor. As she got closer, she remembered details of Taylor's dress, such as the ruffled train and floral trim at the base. Naomi picked up speed as she could just barely make out Taylor's up-due hair.

"Taylor," Naomi dropped to her knees and used her handcuffed hands to lightly nudge the sleeping bride. "Taylor, wake up. Damnit, wake up!" she whispered.

"Go away," the sleepy bride demanded of Naomi.

"Oh no. No, no," Naomi used both hands to nearly roll Taylor onto the people around her. "Get up. You have a wedding to get to."

"The wedding isn't until this afternoon."

"Is that why my watch says it's five?"

Taylor rolled onto her back and barely opened her eyes to look at Naomi, "You mean to tell me you're waking me up at five in the morning to get me ready for-"

"Damnit Taylor, you're in your dress!" The bride opened her eyes a bit wider and vaguely looked at her attire. "We were at Saint Peter's, you walked down the aisle, even your mother made it." Naomi began to explain as Taylor sat up and examined her ripped and dirty gown. "You and Johnny were at the altar."

"Wait," she narrowed her eyes as she recalled her recent memories, "We were there. But, Kyle said something. Johnny and him out into a fight. And then-" she looked around the room and found the groups of sleeping people, "Oh God! Where are we, Naomi?"

"Hey, hey. Don't worry," Naomi grabbed Taylor's hands and steadied them, "Look at me. Everything is going to be alright. I will get us out of here. I will get everyone out."

"How? You're not like The Doctor, you're only human."

"You're right, I am _only_ human." Naomi bounced onto her feet and offered a hand for the bride. "But, you have no idea what one human is capable of."

Taylor used Naomi's steady hand to pull herself up. She adjusted her worn out dress and patted some of the dust off. "What do you plan to do?"

"First things first, we find our family. I need both of my brothers and you need to find your mother."

"Jesus, my mom. She's been out of the hospital for too long! What if she's-"

"Taylor, Taylor!" Naomi grabbed one of her arms, "Stop. No pessimum."

"But Dr. Cole said she could only be out for the ceremony and-" Naomi cut her off before she burst into tears.

"Hey. Look at me!" Naomi became as hard as a rock and her multicolored eyes were like boulders. "I need you to be strong. The only way we're going to get out is if we keep a leveled head. I need you to trust me."

"How?" Taylor snapped her arm out of Naomi's grasp. She was frustrated, confused, and scared; Naomi knew that this misplaced anger wasn't from the Desin water. "How am I suppose to trust you when you follow that crazy Scottish alien around like a damn dog?! When you abandon your friends and family to go with him, not even letting any of us know?!"

Naomi didn't want anything more than defend The Doctor. She knew what kind of print she left on him; now is the time to see what she learned from him. "You're right. I've been a horrible friend and sister, running away from my responsibilities with The Doctor. And, I know now that asking for your trust in me is too much." She quickly dug in her pocket and retrieved the black box from the church, "Is it too much for you to trust this?" Naomi carefully opened the ring box to reveal their wedding rings. "Don't trust me. Not everyone can keep promises. But this, these rings. Love isn't just an emotion; it's a commitment." Taylor grabbed the small black box and examined the rings. "Can you trust that after this, you and Johnny are getting married? Forever forged together with love?" A tear rolled down Taylor's cheek, but Naomi knew it wasn't because she was sad, rather that she was happy.

"Okay," she said weakly as she pulled out her wedding ring and slipped it on her finger. "I can be strong."

"Great. Absolutely perfect." Naomi gave a reassuring smile to her sister-in-law. "Go find your mother. If anyone wakes up, instruct them to not drink any Desin water. That's why we're here in the first place."

She turned to walk away but Taylor called after her, "Where did you learn your persuasion skills?"

"From that crazy Scottish alien."

As the two girls began to search for their loved ones, some of the citizens were beginning to stir. Some of the business men woke up and rubbed their heads while asking Naomi and Taylor questions. The bride had the same default answer to every question, "Ask Naomi." This made her feel like a leader. At first, the red haired girl didn't mind the questions and demands of the people, however it was getting a bit annoying when they all started asking the same list of questions one after another. It was like dealing with ten year olds, apparently every person wanted a different response for the same inquiry. She now understood why The Doctor snapped at her for asking too many questions; it was downright infuriating.

It took a few minutes for Naomi to find both of her brothers, however by the time she was able to wake them up, a large crowd was forming behind her. She was inadvertently being placed as the leader of the mass. She didn't like it. All she really wanted was to make sure her family was conscious and aware of the situation before she attempted to break out of the stone chamber. Despite her best efforts to keep the public calm, it was growing more apparent that they all were like lost children, constantly looking for comfort and answers. Honestly, she was not the one to provide any of those. Thanks to Taylor's default response, Naomi was particularly cornered by the frightened mob of citizens. She held up her hands hoping they would give her some space to gather her thoughts; they only drew in closer to her with nagging questions. She could only understand a few of the continuous inquiries from the terrified mass, "Where are our children?" And, it was a very good question. It seemed that the youngest people there were teenagers. However, she clearly recalled no children or babies on the streets after she left the church. With crying mothers and frantic fathers narrowing on her, Naomi came to an executive decision to address that issue first.

"Everyone, everyone!" she projected over the crowd and used her tip toes to raise her head above the crowd. "Hey! I know we're all stuck here. However, it appears our children are not-"

"Where's my Abigail?!" a woman fell to her knees in front of Naomi.

"What about the kids?!"

"Do you know-"

"Melissa?!"

The mob was getting restless and Naomi was losing control. They began to break down with worried dialogue as they turned on each other. Naomi knew that this wasn't going to end well if she let them fend for themselves. Her short stature proved to be a curse as the crowd began to break away. "Oh damn," she muttered as she weaseled herself through the sobbing mass and to the stairs at the front of the room. She climbed a few steps and faced the panicking public. For a moment, she silently watched in horror as she witnessed the worst of human beings surfaced. She didn't know how to get all of their attention and even if she was able to get it, she had no idea how she would be able to calm them down. "Jesus Christ, what a mess I'm in."

"Naomi!" through the mass, she was able to make out her two brothers, Taylor, and a few of Taylor's friends. They walked quickly through the noisy public and appeared at Naomi's feet, looking up for guidance.

"What do we do?" Johnny asked his younger sister.

"Me?"

"Well of course! I'm sure that your travels with The Doctor has brought you in situations like this one."

"They better not," Donnie gave Naomi a warning glare. "He swore to me that he would protect her."

"He has!"

"Has he put you in danger?" Taylor piped in.

"What kind of question is-"

"Just answer!"

"Guys, now isn't-"

"He said he would keep you safe!"

"Donnie-"

"Damnit! I knew I shouldn't have trust him! Not with you!"

"The hell is that suppose to mean?!"

"You're both reckless!"

The loud background of the panicked public and getting lectured by Donnie made Naomi lose her temper. She didn't shout, lash out at her family, nor did she storm away like a child. Instead, she stuck her fingers in her mouth and used all of her might to create the loudest whistle she could. With one magnificent breath, Naomi's whistle echoed over the voices of the people and bounced off of the stone walls to carry near to the back of the chamber. It took a short second for the mob to get the hint to be silent; even a few people were talking in the back. Suddenly, countless eyes gazed towards Naomi and her family. Her brothers stood next to her at the base of the staircase, almost posing as body guards. Taylor and her friends seemed to be in "no man's land" between Naomi and the mass of worried parents and siblings. Naomi took a moment to catch her breath as she realized there were still people gossiping their worries. Once she had enough breath to project across the heads, she shouted, "Shut up!"

The people in the far back finally got the hint that everyone was paying attention to Naomi now. A few murmurs of teenagers echoed along the floor, but Naomi wasn't too concerned about the "popular opinion." She needed these people to settle down and listen. In the back of her head, Naomi noticed that she was acting a bit like The Doctor; taking control, providing answers for difficult questions, even demanding people to shut up.

"Jesus," she uttered under her breath before addressing the public; she still didn't have a decent plan of escape or even a half answer for the missing children. Time to improvise.

"Listen up!" she started off with a confident posture and a voice that traveled to the back. "In regards to your children, obviously they aren't here-" the crowd began to whisper to themselves; Naomi was scared that they would ignore her again, so she quickly finished her thought, "-but, that's a good thing! They aren't locked in a dungeon like us. They aren't stuck in this dangerous chamber with frantic adults and scared teenagers-"

"I'm not scared," one of the swipey haired teenagers scoffed at Naomi.

"Let her speak!" a mother-like figure slapped the teenager on the back of the head and pointed to the handcuffed, red haired girl on the stairs. Naomi couldn't help but smile in reply for the mother-figure silencing her teen.

"-They are more safe out there than they would be in here." She heard mutters of agreement in the crowd which gave her more confidence in her speech. "The only thing we have to worry about right now, is getting out of here. The one and only exit is behind me. Up these stairs lies-"

"Who the hell put you in charge?" an older man stepped from the crowd to narrow the gap between him and Naomi. He crossed his arms and cocked his head at Naomi. "I didn't know you were an elected official!"

People showed their support for this man by muttering in agreement. Naomi was not in the mood for conflict, however this man was proving to be a handful already.

"And who are you?"

"Well, it seems I am the only one the people-" he gestured with open arms to the public, "-have actually voted for in the mid-term election."

"Oh, which joker are you?" Naomi had a small reputation for not voting, so she would have no idea who this man was.

"Lieutenant Governor Brian Sandoval," the man puffed out his chest and dusted off the sleeves of his jacket. "And you should address your public official in more respect in the future."

"My apologizes, Brian," Naomi said in a sarcastic tone. "Please, shut up!" Even her family turned to give Naomi a disapproving expression. She was busy trying to save everyone, formalities and proper edicate would have to wait before she gets everyone out of the chamber.

Mr. Sandoval's eyes widened as he processed what Naomi had told him. "Who the hell are you to say such things?"

Frustrated to her limit, Naomi stepped down the stairs and stormed passed her brothers; they tried to stop her, but she easily slipped through their hands and marched herself to Mr. Sandoval. Maintaining a constant dirty look the entire walk, Naomi stopped right in front of him. "I can be one of two things. Either your worst nightmare or your only chance of getting out of here you've got."

Mr. Sandoval leaned to Naomi and used a carefree hand to grab her handcuffs and raise her hands up high. "It seems to me that you aren't in a position deliver on either of those descriptions." He yanked her hands down, as if he tossed aside a toy. He walked away from her and to the stairs; Naomi glared at him as he stepped through the crowd. "As your Lieutenant Governor, I will automatically take ownership of this situation and shall lead you all to your missing children!" To her surprise, Naomi flinched as the mass burst out in cheer for Mr. Sandoval. Her leadership and opportunity to escape had slipped through her fingers. She lost sight of her family as the crowd applauded Mr. Sandoval's short speech. "Leaders aren't born, they are forged! I know with the fantastic people of Lincoln County will forge me into the leader you all need to get you out." He reached the base of the stairs and pointed back to Naomi. "We shall start with secluding all criminals!" Two men grabbed Naomi tightly and picked her up. "Keep her in the back, I'll deal with her after I free us from this Hell!" The crowd loudly cheered as Naomi was carried to the back of the chamber, away from her position of leadership.


	19. Chapter 19

The red haired girl was placed in the furthest corner from the public. Naomi was leaning against the stone walls, nothing short of pouting, when Mr. Sandoval continued his speech. She tuned out Mr. Sandoval and concentrated on how she would get everyone out of this chamber. An occasional cheer would emit from the mob momentarily breaking her train of thought, but she quickly learned to ignore them. If they wanted to follow this clown, they can. She'll find a way out and get back to The Doctor; which will be very interesting considering he hasn't found her yet. The Doctor and her will have quite a memorable conversation after this whole ordeal is over.

Naomi was left alone during Mr. Sandoval's speech about unity and whatever bull crap he came up with. She only prayed that they wouldn't drink anymore Desin water, if there was any down here. It was doubtful, but she wouldn't be surprised. Naomi was deep in thought about possible escapes when Mr. Sandoval approached her with two rather large men. He cupped his hands and looked down at Naomi, as if he was about to address a sour child.

"I'm sorry I had to do that," he started off with a fake sympathetic tone, "However, you left me no choice. You had to be dealt with."

"Dealt with?! I was helping these people!" Naomi glared upward to Mr. Sandoval, "You're a joke. You have no idea what's going on outside these walls."

"No I don't, but it seems that you are in the same boat as I."

She held up her swollen wrists with the handcuffs to him, "Did you think that maybe I was put down here because I _know _something? That, maybe I found out some things out there that threatened their little operation?"

Mr. Sandoval tilt his head back and roared with laughter. Naomi brought her hands down and broke eye contact with him. If he wasn't going to take her seriously, then there was no point.

"Oh my dear," Mr. Sandoval composed himself enough to speak, "Somehow I find that hard to believe."

"Brian, don't ever call me 'dear.' That's reserved for someone else."

"Then, what do you want me to call you?"

"The Back-up. Because when you can't get us out, I will."

The two men were left to guard Naomi; apparently she had intimated the Lieutenant Governor enough for him to leave them. She didn't worry about them. Instead she focused all her available time to their escape. However, The Doctor popped back into her mind. Naomi couldn't help but feel angry that he hadn't appeared yet; what was he doing? She needed him to get out, these people needed him to save the day. But, he wasn't here. Why? As she waited for some miraculous answer to form in front of her, she had a brief moment of helplessness. So many questions were littering in her head, about Officer Burkman, Digery, and especially The Doctor. What was he thinking? He left her alone to fend for herself. What could have possibly possess him to claim that she was "his" and then disappear? Was it the work of the Desin water? That's when it occurred to her. Think. That's how they would get out.

"Holy crap, that could work,"she said, running the details in her head to double check. "I can get us out," she muttered to herself at first, then she said it louder to the guards. "I can get us out!"

"Shut up, Mr. Sandoval told us to-"

"Listen! I know what we can do to get us out! All of us!"

The two guards exchanged looks before whispering to each other. Naomi pushed herself up and awaited for their verdict. They both stopped and glanced back to their prisoner.

"How?"

"Oh, well, go get Brian, and I'll tell you."

"We are ordered to watch you-"

"Jesus," she rolled her eyes, "Then watch me go and get him."

She took a step forward and the two guards moved in front of her.

"Hey now. Just calm down. We don't want to hurt you."

"Then don't." Naomi continued to walk around them.

The men watched her easily walk around them and back into the crowd. Light murmurs of surprise sounded as she stormed past the mob. It wasn't difficult for Naomi to lose her guards, she just kept walking and weaving through the mass. Within minutes, Naomi found Mr. Sandoval and appeared next to him; she surprised him, so he took a few defensive steps back.

"Wha-what are you doing? Where are your guards?"

"Gone." She stood in front of the shaking man, glancing around her to make sure no one would grab her again. "Now shut up and listen. I have an idea to get us out."

"You need to go back to your corner and-"

"Don't make me slap you Brian."

Mr. Sandoval took a deep breath to calm his quivering nerves. Naomi carefully watched him and her surrounding peers. They were helplessly studying Naomi's interactions with Mr. Sandoval. She would have to be cautious if she was going to get out.

"Alright, I'm listening."

"Great," she said with a softer tone to appeal more gentle to the public. "Now, all we have to do is make the people who put us here think."

"I'm not following."

"Clearly," she sighed. "What if we all did something to grab their attention and bring them down here?"

Mr. Sandoval glared at her but was still trying to comprehend what she was implying. "Wha-what're you saying?"

"If we all screamed, like there was a massive riot or someone even died, they would _think_ something bad happened. So they would come rushing down those stairs to investigate. If we time it right, we could get a few people up there and hold the door or even keep it open while everyone else gets out."

He thought about her proposal for a few moments. She eagerly waited for him to say something, anything. All she wanted was to know that they could at least try her plan.

"We would only have one chance to do that. And, there are quite a lot of 'if's' involved. Seems a bit too risky."

"Then let's have the people decide. Let's use democracy to see what the people have to say." It was clear that Mr. Sandoval wasn't too keen on asking the opinions of the people; he feared that her proposal would prevail. The two leaders held each other's unhindered gaze for a minute. Mr. Sandoval was obviously worried about her taking control of the situation and Naomi just simply wanting to get out and find The Doctor. After everything she realized about The Doctor, she needed to find him and talk to him.

Brian Sandoval never answered her, instead, they were interrupted by the sound of the thick, heavy metal door creaking open. It seemed to stop all movement in the chamber as a dim light beamed from the door and filtered the base of the stairs. Naomi held her breath as she saw shadows bounce down the stairs; they never reached the base. Her first hope was that The Doctor found her; that was wishful thinking. It wasn't until a voice shouted, "Fire!" that she knew it wasn't him. A loud popping sound echoed around them as a tin gas canister was shot down the remainder of the stairs. Immediately, Naomi knew it was tear gas.

Before anyone could react, the canister opened at both ends and began to spray white smoke into the chamber. As that can was emitting tear gas, the officer fired another round further back into the crowd. Panic soon emerged from the public and screams of terror filled the stone dungeon. The two tear gas cans sprayed the white smoke around the feet of citizens as a handful of police officers rushed down the stone steps. They were armed with rifles and wore gas mask around their faces. Naomi began to cough violently and attempted to cover her eyes from the stinging gas. Her skin felt as though it was on fire and her lungs craved clean oxygen.

Within the chaos, two officers found Naomi in tears and recovered her. They grabbed her forearms and dragged her toward the stairs. She couldn't understand what was happening so all she could do was follow the direction of the officers. They brought her up the stone stairs and out to the dying daylight. Naomi forced herself to open her eyes and glance at the metal door; she saw Mr. Sandoval walking out from the chamber as well, only he had a gas mask. She knew there was a reason for her hating him, and now it proved that he was working with the aggressive officers the entire time. Naomi silently vowed to make him pay. As she continued to cough and cry out the gas in her eyes, the officers nearly dragged her up more stairs of the police station. She tried her best to remember where they were bringing her, but her horrible gassed up lungs were stealing all of her attention. At the top of the stairs, one officer pushed open an exit door and shoved Naomi forward. Her body fell down and quickly landed on chilly concrete. She could hear someone talking, but she was too focused on coughing up the toxic gas to comprehend what was happening. The fresh air blew towards her, gathering up the remaining smoke on her skin and filtering it away. It continued to sting, however to a less severe degree. Through watery eyes, Naomi glanced around her and just barely recognize that she was on the roof of the police station. A helipad was on the far side and a large satellite dish was pointing to space. A few bodies were standing next to the dish, but the gas was making it difficult to identify who it was.

"That's her?" she heard a familiar voice say, it sounded like Officer Burkman. "That's your 'Ace in the Hole?' Jesus, Doctor, she's just a kid!"

Naomi glanced up with more clear vision and saw that Burkman was one of the people at the base of the satellite dish, along with Digery and The Doctor. The two officers were scoffing at Naomi as The Doctor held a wide eyed glare at her; it seemed that he was trying to tell her something with his eyes, was it an apology? She still couldn't see all of the details of her surroundings, so she wasn't sure.

"She isn't tough," Digery laughed. "There's no way she can pose a threat."

"How about taking these handcuffs off and I show you how dangerous I can be," she growled in between coughing fits.

Behind her appeared Mr. Sandoval with long strides and a hot temper. "I thought I told you to keep me with the citizens! What the hell were you thinking?!" The Lieutenant Governor stormed past Naomi and went straight to Burkman.

"Plans changed." He answered confidently. "As you can see, we got a few interruptions." Burkman gestured to The Doctor and then Naomi. "Who is that girl?"

"Why does it matter? Just kill them both!" Mr. Sandoval demanded.

Naomi finally gained control of her choking lungs and helped herself up. There was an officer next to her, keeping a steady aim at Naomi with a rifle. With a death glare, she snapped her neck to the armed officer.

"Holding that rifle like that, at me, you better pray that your shot kills me. Because I've had one hell of a day and if I get back up from a bullet wound, I guarantee that you won't make it to dawn."

"Oh!" Burkman sounded excited from the satellite. "She's feisty! I see why you kept her. Maybe I'll take a turn with her-" Naomi saw The Doctor make a threatening move towards Burkman, causing Digery to ready his rifle at The Doctor. "Well then, looks like I've found a soft spot!"

While everyone's attention was towards The Doctor, Naomi pounced at her guard. With quick hands, either though they were handcuffed, she redirected the barrel of the rifle away from her. The officer flinched and squeezed the trigger; gathering all of the eyes on the roof. Naomi spun on her feet and positioned one foot in between his feet and used her second leg to kick his knee inward; a quick swipe of her first foot caused the officer to fall onto the ground. Naomi picked up the rifle and immediately threw it over the safety railings.

"Impressive!" Burkman clapped with a sarcastic tone in his voice, "Really, that was cool. I had no idea you could do something like that."

"Don't say anything!" The Doctor instructed her. Naomi followed his order and kept her mouth shut. "He's being controlled by a Funmer in space. Anything you say will be transmitted to them."

"Controlled? I'm not some pawn for them! I'm a valuable member of the team!" Burkman immediately became defensive. "Without me, they couldn't create the code for the water, they wouldn't be able to get their processors in the bottles, and they sure as hell couldn't capture the legendary Doctor without _me!_"

"What is Funmer?" Mr. Sandoval asked Burkman. Naomi realized that the Lieutenant Governor didn't know that aliens were involved; how could he not know? Microprocessors in bottled water? It had to be alien. "Yo-you told me that you created those micro devices to put in the water and that you could control anyone who drank the water. Control that damn girl!"

"Those devices were given to me. As for her-" he pointed at Naomi, "-she probably didn't drink the water. Which is fine! I swear she will follow my commands-" a threatening glance at Naomi and then at The Doctor, "-or I'll start hurting him."

She looked at The Doctor, searching for answers. He kept a calm posture as he nodded to listen to Burkman. "Do as you're told," he said. The red haired girl knew that he was trying to keep her even-tempered. She dropped her guard and exhaled loudly, showing Burkman and Mr. Sandoval that she relaxed a little and was waiting for an order."

"See? All you have to do is tug on a few heart strings, and everyone caves in." Burkman shrugged his shoulders and waved Naomi closer to him. "C'mon, get over here."

Naomi took cautious steps towards the four men. Her steps slowed down as she passed The Doctor; she was close enough for him slip something small in her pocket. She knew better than to draw attention to it, so she kept walking to Burkman. All she wanted to do was stand by The Doctor, for them to fight off and stop whatever they were planning. Unfortunately, that wasn't a reality. She needed to do as she was told.

"But who is Funmer?" Mr. Sandoval said to Burkman.

"They are the ones who will liberate us! Free us from the crippling life on Earth and take us into their world! All they need is a place for some supplies. About the size of Lincoln County."

"Aliens! They are aliens, Mr. Lieutenant Governor," The Doctor mocked the title that was given to him. "They want to invade your city. And you let it happen."

"No! No! I just wanted to get elected into office! I didn't know anything about aliens and this-"

"How do you think you won the election?" Burkman interrupted. "I controlled those people to vote for you. So, the least you could do is show some appreciation."

"You promised me a crime-free term! A problem less four years in office. I don't want aliens in my city!"

"God dammit Brian," Naomi rolled her eyes as the men were arguing. She silently fished in her pocket to find a small silver key. It was a handcuff key. Quickly, she brought it out and held it in her hand, waiting for another opportunity to be left undetected to unlock her handcuffs.

"It's too late Mr. Sandoval!" Burkman pressed a few buttons at the base of the satellite to realign the dish towards the sky. "Get ready to meet our intergalactic neighbors!" With a pull of a lever, a pulsating yellow ring emitted from the dish. It made no sound, however everyone on the roof could see the rings drift away and expand into nothingness.

"Wait, they're coming here now?!" Digery asked.

"That's right old friend. We will be heralded as heroes among the Funmer!"

Naomi quickly rearranged the key in her hand and placed it in the tiny hole in the handcuffs. The first cuff was difficult to unlock, but as the men carried on about the approaching Funmer, she was able to click it off. Her left wrist was swollen red and rubbed raw from the tight cuffs. Getting the second one off was much easier.

"Well, where are they?" Digery asked, gazing up at the darkening sky.

"The Funmer are nocturnal creatures. Since Earth is so close to the sun, they can't come until it sets." The Doctor answered.

Burkman smiled at him, "Very good, you know your aliens."

"A very passionate field of study," The Doctor replied.

"Regardless, they will be pleased to see you in custody, Doctor."

"Lots of aliens would."

As the sun fell behind the horizon, a beam of light shot down from the heavens. Naomi flinched as the light dimmed and an alien stepped forward. It was tall and resembled a cricket. Impressive looking armor was hugging around The Funmer's torso and a black cape draped around the wings on its back. Bug eyes and long segmented antennae perched on top of its head. Seeing aliens before, Naomi and The Doctor were the only two who didn't flinch when The Funmer stepped onto the roof. The light behind it disappeared as fast as it shot down from the ship; Naomi concluded it was a transport beam of some sort.

"Welcome to your-" Burkman began to greet the Funmer, but was dramatically interrupted by the police officer who was pointing the rifle at Naomi; he shouted in shock. With a simply movement, Burkman upholstered his handgun and fired a single shot to his fellow officer. That officer fell onto the ground, motionless. The flash of light startled The Funmer to step away and cover its eyes. Naomi became frozen with fear, it was finally stuck in her head that Burkman was over the edge and willing to do anything to get what he wanted. Her life was actually in danger with him.

Burkman continued his introduction to The Funmer as Naomi glanced to The Doctor. He was watching her carefully, attempting to comfort her with dark eyes. She exhaled a shaky breath and placed her throbbing hands in her pockets, avoiding any form of eye contact. In her right pocket, Naomi pulled out Officer Burkman's lighter. Her multicolored eyes popped wide open as she realized she could use this to drive The Funmer away. While she was distracted, a few more Funmer had beamed down to the roof. A bigger audience for her fire show.

Flicking the lighter open, Naomi leaned forward and ran her thumb down the thumb wheel and flint. A small flame was ignited. Quickly, she put the flame to Mr. Sandoval's thick coat. It easily caught a loose thread and traveled into the seams. It was rather quick when Mr. Sandoval noticed that his back had caught on fire. Naomi ripped her jacket off and began to burn the sleeve. Both of the jackets were tossed in front of The Funmer; Naomi intentionally threw her's where Mr. Sandoval carelessly aimed it that way.

The large cricket creatures covered their eyes and backed away, releasing a horrible sound in defense. Burkman and Digery turned to Naomi; The Doctor ran towards the officers. Digery aimed his handgun at Naomi, but she ducked and hid behind the console of the satellite. She quickly circled the base and emerged next to Digery. He didn't have time to properly aim, so he shot a warning round; Naomi's hearing seemed to fall her, but it didn't stop her from knocking Digery's handgun out from his grip. They exchanged a few punches, thanks to Lua's defensive DNA, Naomi was able to dodge Digery's heavy fists and land a solid kick in his stomach. Digery bellowed over, clenching his abs. Naomi took this advantage to grab his head by his ears and slam her foot in has face, causing him to lay on the ground, moaning in pain.

"Naomi!" she just barely heard The Doctor call her name. She turned around to be met by Burkman, he held his baton high and struck her hard. Her body fell to the ground as Burkman restrained himself to look back at The Doctor.

"Bring them back!"

"They destroyed the satellite. I can't fix it without my screwdriver."

In a desperate attempt to bring The Funmer back, Burkman quickly pulled The Doctor's sonic screwdriver out and tossed it to him. "Bring them back, or I'll kill her!"

The Doctor caught the screwdriver and pointed it at the console. Naomi heard the buzzing of the screwdriver; she didn't realize how much she missed that noise. After a moment of the buzzing, Naomi strained herself to see tiny sparks blast from the satellite dish and then finally a small burst of energy shot the monitor off of the console. Naomi glanced up at Burkman who was mad-driven.

"Wrong move, Doctor," Burkman readied his baton to strike her again, but he suddenly stopped and shouted. He fell to his knees as his entire body began to tremble. Naomi rolled away from Burkman and watched as she saw The Doctor point the sonic screwdriver at the officer; the taser in his holster was beaming with small flashes of light. As the taser used all of reserved power, Burkman finally dropped onto his stomach and landed hard on his face.

Naomi surveyed the roof as the buzzing of the sonic screwdriver clicked off; Officer Burkman and Digery were unable to move on the ground, the two jackets were burned into a seared black, and Mr. Sandoval was staring blankly into the dark sky. The satellite dish was continuing to spark a little as The Doctor rushed to Naomi's side.

"Are you alright?" he asked, kneeling next to her. He used his hand to gently guide Naomi's head around, examining her face where Burkman had hit her.

Her eyes were darting across the surface of the roof. "Where did The Funmer go?"

"When you started that fire, I threw Lieutenant Governor's cubic zirconium wedding ring; luckily it burned bright enough to scare them off back into their ship."

"So, are we good? Are we safe?" Naomi met his eyes with uncertainty.

"It appears so," he released her chin and slipped his coat off; he draped it over her shoulders and carefully helped her to her feet. "You didn't answer me."

"What?"

"Are you alright?"

Naomi dusted off her once beautiful dress and wrapped herself inside of The Doctor's jacket. It was warm, she enjoyed having it around her. "I don't know," she answered honestly. So much has happened today, none of which was positive. Then she remembered what The Doctor had said and did; that was the only positive thing that occurred that day. So much for Johnny and Taylor's perfect wedding day. "Can we go?" she asked quietly. Naomi was a bit ashamed to ask such a question but she didn't want to handle anything else. Her family would go absolutely crazy if they saw her so beaten up. Donnie was already under the impression that The Doctor wasn't protecting her, this would only fuel the fire.

He didn't answer; instead he eased his hand in her's and lead her away from the sparking satellite dish. As they passed Mr. Sandoval, he snapped his head towards them and jumped to them.

"Wait, wait! You can't go! Whe-where are the children and elderly? Those micro devices are still in the water! You can't leave me to clean up this mess!"

Naomi stopped walking and held The Doctor back from ignoring him. These were fair and honest questions that needed to be answered. The Doctor glanced back at Naomi; she didn't say a word but nodded towards Mr. Sandoval. He sighed quietly and faced the Lieutenant Governor.

"They hid the children in the middle school on Bonneville Street. The older people were relocated to a hospital in Montgomery district. The Funmer are leaving Earth's atmosphere, the signal to the microprocessors will fade away; making them entirely useless. And yes, we can." As The Doctor answered Mr. Sandoval's inquiries, Naomi remembered that her jacket still had the TARDIS key. She quickly went back and fished around the still hot material to find the silver key still in her pocket.

"No, please! Hey girl! You wanted to save all of the citizens down in the basement. Will you open their door before you leave?"

She took a moment to think of an appropriate answer. "You judged me a criminal because I had handcuffs on my wrists. I proved you wrong. Now, I judge you to be a weak man because you choose to have other people clean up a mess you were apart of. Your turn to prove me wrong." Mr. Sandoval's face dropped as Naomi looked at The Doctor, silently signaling him that she was ready to leave.


	20. Chapter 20

Hand in hand, the two left the police station and quietly walked down the darkened street back to Saint Peter's. As they walked, Naomi forced herself to take steady breaths to get the image of that unknown officer's death out of her head. She couldn't help but feel guilty about his death; he was blindly following Burkman. He didn't deserve to die.

With The Doctor's long legs, they quickly made it to the TARDIS before any of the patrolling officers saw them. He motioned to dig through his coat pocket by patting his chest; he must have forgotten he gave Naomi his coat. He turned to her, about to ask her if he could dig out the key, when Naomi leaned forward and used her key to unlock it for him. She gently pushed it open to reveal the main control room. The Doctor looked at her with a questionable expression.

"I've got quite a few questions for you," Naomi stated. She looked up at her Scottish Doctor as he seemed to accept that fact. She didn't say anything else as she easily stepped into the blue box. Still wrapped in The Doctor's cozy coat, Naomi went straight to the control chair, slowly warming herself up.

The Doctor had closed the door behind him when he entered. He took cautious steps to the console and locked his stare at Naomi. She knew that he knew what she was about to ask. All she wanted was answers. No interruptions, no lies, and definitely not a "not yet," response. She needed to know.

Naomi couldn't help but rake her fingers through her red hair; one of many nervous twitches. "You know what I'm about to ask."

"Are you mad?"

She looked to The Doctor with a raised eyebrow. "Mad, what? Why would I be mad?"

"I don't know. You seem," he held up his hands as if the word would appear in his palms, "Upset."

"I'm not. Unless you answer my next questions untruthfully."

"How would you know if I was lying?"

"Please, Doctor. So much has happened in the last six hours, I don't want lies." She used her eyes to plead with him, "I feel like I ran across this planet trying to find my family, fighting with a public official, even attempting to figure you out. I would greatly appreciate your honesty with what I ask."

He bowed his head and seemed to brace himself for her line of questions. She watched him exhale quietly before raising his head and said, "If that's what you want."

"It is." Naomi hesitated to think of which answer she would ask first. The Doctor took this short moment to move from the main console to the stairs leading to the library to sit down but still face her. She quickly came to a decision. "Why did you kiss me?"

"Well, aren't you relentless this evening," he scoffed at her. Naomi said nothing and held a stone-like glare at him. She noticed him fidget with his hands before saying, "How about an easier one?"

He was right, she was a bit harsh tonight. Probably how this day transformed from a beautiful wedding to a near alien invasion. She needed to ease up and center herself. Hounding The Doctor for the answers she needed wasn't the way to go. "Okay, sorry." She looked away and thought about another question. "So, last time we were in the TARDIS, you told me to cover my eyes. Why?"

The Doctor thought for a moment before answering, "At the police station, I explained that the Desin water contained microprocessors that monitored human biology. After The Funmer had enough information, they learned to release key hormones and chemicals in human bodies to alter moods. They caused the outburst at the wedding and the domestic disturbances around the area. However, since I had ingested the water as, it affected me as well. I'm a Time Lord, not a human; the microprocessors released different hormones in my body. Instead of getting in arguments and fist fights, I-" he cleared his throat and wiped his palms on his pants, "I felt the need to protect you at all costs."

"That explains why you brought me away from the church to here and flew the TARDIS across time and space. But not why I had to cover my eyes."

"Your eyes are distinctly your's. I have never met someone with eyes like your's. Lots of people have blue eyes, brown, green, purple. But, your eyes are two different colors. No question that those are your eyes. Since the microprocessors were releasing extra chemicals in my body, whenever I saw your eyes," The Doctor stared at the floor in front of him. Naomi could tell he was uncomfortable about this, but she couldn't stop her curiosity. "I experienced the need- no, the _crave_ to be. With. You." Naomi felt a bit weird with how The Doctor said those last words. He had paused in between the words and avoided her easy eyes. She could tell this was as uncomfortable for him as it was for her.

"So, what you said at the police station," Naomi knew there was no going back now, she would have to power through and clear out all the awkwardness now, "You only said that because of the microprocessors?"

"That's where humans and Time Lords differ. The microprocessors can create, even duplicate hormones for humans. All they can do for Time Lords is enhance the ones already available."

At first, Naomi didn't catch on with what The Doctor was saying, but then she spent a few minutes to fully understand what he was saying; without really saying it. How he explained it could have been better worded, but he must really loath this sort of topic to be as vague as he was being. Despite his indirect answers, Naomi learned to accept what he said.

"That makes sense," Naomi nodded her head. The Doctor relaxed his shoulders a little as he stood up and examined the main console. Then her first question popped in her mind, only with a new angle. "Hold up," she said, getting his attention again. She eased off of the control chair and stepped to the console, lightly leaning on the edge, "Wait a minute. You kissed me after I covered my eyes."

"Did I?" The Doctor quickly avoided her eyes and pretended to become focused on the computer screen.

"Yes, yes. It was definitely after I wrapped your tie around my head."

"Of course, yes." He swallowed his courage and kept his dark orbs away from Naomi's piercing crystals. "That, well, you see. I had a theory; I thought I could transfer the microprocessors from me to you through such an action." He was fidgeting with his fingers at the controls. After waiting a moment of silence, The Doctor glanced at Naomi to see what she was doing; she was carefully watching him for any signs of lying. To Naomi, it was obvious. Their previous discussion showed Naomi that he was extremely uncomfortable talking about such things, it might even be difficult for him to express such strong emotions. She accepted it. However, she wasn't quite as satisfied with his last answer. Naomi knew he lied. So now, she was going to catch him in it.

"Ahh, I see," she was sure to say it in a way to undoubtedly grab The Doctor's attention.

"See what?" he quickly responded.

"Oh, well it all makes sense. The microprocessors, chemicals and hormones, even down to the genetics. It was a whole lot easier to understand than I initially thought. Actually, I'm pretty relieved."

"In what way?" The Doctor gave her a questionable look with his dark eyes.

Naomi held back a smile as she said, "Well, because if that was suppose to be a romantic first kiss, it kinda wasn't." She bit her bottom lip and rolled her head to avoid his narrowing eyes. She expected him to defend himself, to say anything. But he didn't. Naomi waited for The Doctor to rebuttal, however, as Naomi was combing her hair with her hands, The Doctor flipped a switch. The TARDIS began to hum as he stepped around the console to press buttons and pull a lever. "Doctor? What are you doing?" Naomi followed him around and carefully watched at what he was doing. He still didn't answer. Naomi immediately grabbed the computer screen to see where The Doctor was taking flying to; before she could read where he entered the coordinates, he pulled it out of her hand. "Doctor, hey! Where are we?" Without saying a word, he nodded to the door. "Did you bring me home? Doctor, it was a joke-"

"Go and look," he said, crossing his arms.

She was a bit scared, not of The Doctor, but of not knowing where he had brought her. Her biggest hope was to open the door and see her living room. With uneasy steps, Naomi went to the TARDIS door. She took a deep breath and pulled the door towards her; she definitely did not find her living room on the other side. Instead of walking into her cramped apartment, Naomi stepped onto loose gravel.

Her jaw dropped when she realized that The Doctor brought her to a different planet. She didn't know which one, but they landed inside a mountain side cave. The entrance to the cave overlooked a large forest of dark green trees and bright colorful flowers. The petals of each flower danced underneath the mountain as the wind picked up. Loose leaves shot into the air as the wind guided them upward. To the east were two setting suns that painted the sky a light orange hue fading into a soft pink and then back to a gentle blue. As the suns touched the horizon, not a sound could be heard besides the gust drifting by. Naomi's breath was taken away.

The Doctor quickly stepped next to her and pointed his sonic screwdriver in the air. The buzzing clicked on and immediately echoed down the mountain. Naomi gave him a questionable look, but said nothing. As the buzzing pulsate downward, small amounts of movement could be seen. The red haired girl looked over the edge of the mountain and watched to identify the creatures that were being awaken by the sound. She watched for some sort of stags or wolves to run across the ground, but she didn't find any land creatures. Instead, she was surprised by the fluttering. She looked from the base of the mountain to towards the horizon; the still sky was completely filled with a variety of flying creatures. It wasn't until one of those creatures landed in her shoulder did she realize that they were butterflies.

"Oh my God," she gasped. He had brought her to the planet with an entire population of butterflies. She never thought The Doctor would show her this planet; she even forgot about it herself. She turned to The Doctor, dumbfounded by this strange visit. He clicked his screwdriver off and slipped it into his pant pocket. "What, I don't-" before she could express her confusion, The Doctor quickly silenced her by leaning down and pressing his lips to her's. At first she was caught off guard, but she relaxed and allowed the scene to play out around her.


	21. Chapter 21

Weeks passed and Naomi found a happy balance with her life and The Doctor. She would go to work five days out of the week, maybe have an occasional visit from The Doctor at lunch, have family dinner every Wednesday, and Sunday was usually a day long adventure into the unknown reaches of time and space. The warehouse was thriving every week, Naomi's brothers eventually gave in to her travels with The Doctor, even though Donnie voiced his great dislike for it constantly, and everything seemed to mold neatly together.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. On the 15th of October, Naomi was fast asleep in her apartment. Her bedroom was nearly pitch black with only the alarm clock's bright green numbers for light. As the clock ticked closer to 5:30, she happened to roll over onto her right side. Her body felt a pillow so her arms instinctively wrapped around it. With a light exhale of air, either her subconscious or Lua's defensive DNA felt something off; it took a minute for her mind to realize that she didn't own a full-sized body pillow. She immediately woke up. Naomi's mind was operating quite faster than her eyes could process. They adjusted to the darkness as she stretched and popped her shoulders and feet, finishing off extending her limbs with a soft face nozzle into the body pillow. As a silent yawn escaped her mouth, she began to look around with hazy vision. Her eyes went straight to the alarm clock; she still had eight minutes to sleep. Dropping her sleepy head on the body pillow caused the pillow to gasp out of surprise. Naomi quickly jolted awake and sat upright, to see what her head landed on.

"Well good morning to you too."

"What the hell? Doctor, you're in my bed!"

"Correction, I'm _on_ your bed. _In_ would imply that I was in between sheets and under the cover. I am merely laying on top of it."

"God, you nearly gave me a damn heart attack!"

"According to these readings," he flicked his screwdriver and clicked it on, "Your vitals are only slightly shocked."

"Give me that!" Naomi lunged for the screwdriver, but The Doctor was faster and rolled off the bed.

"Do you have any idea how long I've waited for you to wake up?"

"You didn't have to wait in-"

"_On._"

"-My bed for that. The living room would've suffice."

"I needed to make sure you didn't oversleep or use the snooze. I need you awake!"

"Why didn't you just use the TARDIS to jump to 5:30? That's when my alarm-"

"What's with all the questions? Do you not want your birthday present?"

Naomi rubbed her sleepy eyes while carefully watching The Doctor, "Birthday? It isn't, though. It's in December, not October."

"Exactly two months away."

"Well, yeah. So?"

"Naomi, are you always this dim-witted when you wake up?"

"Probably. But then again, I never woke up with a Scottish alien _on_ my bed before so," Naomi shrugged her shoulders to finish her thought. The Doctor sighed and turned the light on; Naomi whinced by the bright light and hid her eyes from the newly illuminated room. "Jesus, give a warning, will ya?"

"You were in a coma, remember? For two-"

"Two months, on the TARDIS. Then you brought me back a few hours after you found me. So, that means my birthday is still December 15th."

"For this gift, it's all about your mental state."

Naomi was just barely able to glare at The Doctor under the shade of her hands. "What's that suppose to mean?"

"Unfortunately, I can't say. Not yet."

"You and that phrase, 'not yet.' When is it ever going to be 'yet'?"

"After you get back."

"From where? I've got work today."

"I'll bring you back before then."

"So where am I going?"

"To recover your missing memories."

She dropped her hands and narrowed her colorful eyes at The Doctor. With her lips pressed together and a warning glare to her Doctor, Naomi gently crossed her arms and took a deep breath. "Do you have something to do with my memories?"

The Doctor slightly opened his mouth but then closed it tight. Naomi held her quizzical look and raised an eyebrow. "Everything will be explained."

"Jesus. Please tell me that you aren't the reason why-"

"Naomi," he interrupted and took a cautious step closer to her bed, easing himself on top of the sheets, "What I'm about to show you is important." She rolled her eyes and sighed, but The Doctor continued to speak, "I need you to be at your best. Critical, analytical. Stern and tremendously observate. Bias perspectives will not aid you."

Her eyes finally adjusted to the light as The Doctor stood from her bed and opened the wooden door. She used her colorful orbs to follow him to the frame; The Doctor stopped and looked back to her.

"Coming?" He didn't ask in his usual condescending tone, or even a sarcastic one. It was genuine. Naomi could barely see his fear of her rejection in his eyes. What The Doctor didn't know was there should never be a fear of her; she was willing to go anywhere with him.

"Do I get to shower first?"

"On the TARDIS," he stepped out of her room and disappeared around the corner.

Naomi flipped the sheets off of her and jumped off her soft bed. With quick steps, she followed The Doctor down her short hallway and found the blue police box sitting in its usual corner. The Doctor had already walked into the police box when Naomi shuffled her cold feet into the TARDIS. The chilling metal under her feet caused shivers to run up her back and through her fingers. Naomi suffered the freezing ground as she closed the door and rushed past The Doctor, whom was examining the controls on the dashboard.

After a thorough wash and scrub, Naomi put together an outfit to The Doctor's qualifications and emerged from the lower floors back to the main control room. Her hair was still damp as she checked the time on her cell phone. "Okay, I need to be back at-"

"Approximately 6:18." Naomi glanced up from her phone to stare at him; The Doctor was clearly on edge.

"Have you've been watching when I leave for the warehouse?"

"How else could I calculate when to bring you back?"

"Asking is a valid option."

"Not when you've been running late the past week," he looked up from the monitor and narrowed his eyes at Naomi, "Leave your phone here."

"What if someone calls?"

"That's exactly what I don't want to happen."

"Why? Doctor, where are we and what are we doing?"

He took a short moment to ease a step of two closer to Naomi, "_We _ aren't doing anything. However, _you've_ got a party to attend."

"A party? But I'm wearing a hoodie with jeans."

"This particular gathering is exclusive. No one can get in unless they have a personal invitation."

"So, I've got one?"

"Don't be ridiculous. They won't be able to see you."

"I'm sorry, what?"

The Doctor held up a normal looking watch, extending it to Naomi. She grabbed it and quickly looked over it. "When you put that on and turn the knob on the side, it'll manipulate the light particles around you and bend them to cause a translucent filter over you."

Naomi slipped the simple watch on her wrist and fastened it, "This will make me invisible?"

"Correct. However, I haven't quite worked out the kinks. A minor error keeps occurring to enhance the color red, instead of cloaking it."

"Oh, so that's why I have to wear the hoodie."

He nodded to inform Naomi that she was right again. "Now, this is the most absolutely crucial part. This exclusive party is in your own timeline; you must not interfere. With anything. Leave everything alone. Do not talk to anyone. No interaction whatsoever."

"If it's so dangerous, why am I going? And why can't you come with me?"

"Since you will be at an earlier time in your life, it will cause a weak spot in time and space. Having me there will only weaken that spot until either a rip or a paradox would occur."

"A paradox? But how?"

"Naomi, I can't go with you."

"I'm just so confused. What does this party have to do with my memories? And you really trust me to go in alone?"

"You have to. Otherwise you wouldn't understand."

"If I don't have my phone, and you're just dropping me off, how will you know where to get me afterward?"

"I'll know."

Naomi sighed as The Doctor landed the TARDIS. The soothing humming ceased as Naomi lightly tied her hair back and flipped the dark hood over her head. With her hair hidden, the two time travelers walked to the door. The Doctor opened the door and Naomi stepped out on to concrete. She looked back to her Doctor.

"What if I mess up? What if I cause the end of the world or something just by being here?"

"So many questions," he lightly sighed to partly ease Naomi's worries. "Just follow the crowd and keep your hood on."

With a small grin from The Doctor, he closed the TARDIS door and disappeared. Naomi took the few seconds to watch him leave completely, praying that he would be back soon to take her home. He didn't return. Naomi was left to stare blankly at the brick wall as she came to terms that she was alone.

She turned around and surveyed her area. It was a downtown like neighborhood, many empty buildings and overgrown grass and weeds in between the cracks of the sidewalk. Windows were broken, doors boarded up, and chunks of brick walls were missing from staggered structions. The sun was nearing the horizon as it was setting on this new day. Naomi took a cautious step around the corner of the brick wall to get a further glimpse at her surroundings. In front of the brick building, there was a long line of people to the front door. There definitely weren't homeless, they all wore moderately nice clothes, dresses and skirts for the women with slacks and blazers for the men. It didn't take Naomi long to notice that everyone was a couple. One male, one female, and then a young child. At the door appeared to be a bouncer of some sort, checking guests in and keeping unwelcome people from entering. Before Naomi stepped out on to the deserted street, she quickly turned the little knob on the watch to manipulate the light around her to become invisible.

While in the street to avoid making contact with approaching families, Naomi glanced upward to the sign on the roof of the tall brick building. It read "Jeremy's Bricks. A family factory."

"What the hell? A brick factory?" she muttered to herself.

"A brick factory?"

Naomi instinctively covered her mouth and immediately turned to face the person who said what she was thinking. Behind her was another small family. However, this small family mad Naomi drop her jaw and stare in bewilderment.

The mother was average height with a simple pixie haircut. Her sharp cheeks and chin gave her a demanding demeanor and a stance of authority. The father was taller and had more lean muscle than fat. With a center part in his hair and bright blue eyes, Naomi couldn't help but feel as though there was more to this man than meets the eye. Lastly, they had a daughter. She had longer light brown hair and a simple sundress. Her knees were scraped and her arms had bruises all over them. While the parents were stern, authoritative, and definitely didn't own a funny bone in their entire body, their daughter was clearly a wild child. Naomi could just tell that the girl's nails had dirt under them and that her toes were banged and sore from constant running into things. The red haired, invisible girl stepped aside silently to allow this new family to walk passed her without being detected.

"Why would anyone have a party at a brick factory?" the little girl asked her strict parents.

"The company wanted to keep it discreet. Only selective people are allowed to attend."

"Is that why my brothers couldn't come?"

"That's right. Now we have to wait in line for check-in and then-" the father was instructing the little girl what was about to happen when he was cut off as the child got excited about seeing a friend and ran off. As the girl ran to near the front of the line of families, her father called after her, "Naomi! Get back here!"


	22. Chapter 22

In all honesty, Naomi should have realized that her younger self was going to be present at this "party." The fact that she didn't piece it together earlier made her feel stupid; it only made sense that little girl Naomi would be here. How else could she have lost her memories? The more she thought about it, the brick factory did seem familiar. Was this where she somehow forgot her younger childhood? There was only one way to find out.

After the initial shock of seeing her carefree self as a child, the invisible girl took easy steps and avoided chips of broken glass to order to not make any unnecessary sound. Naomi neared the line of small families and waited to sneak in with one of the last couples. With a racing heart and sweaty palms, she attempted to keep her frantic breathing hidden as she stood close to the adults. Their child quickly ran inside as the three adults exchanged names and the couple showed their invitation. As they walked through the door, Naomi held her breath and stepped in behind them, just brushing past the bouncer. The muscle man turned towards the couple in a threatening gesture, but only Naomi saw it. She flinched and rushed away from the entrance.

Naomi emerged to the factory floor of the building. All of the leftover pallets of bricks were pushed into a corner and a small stage was hastily put together with wood and two large speakers were at the front edges of the stage. Saw dust and brick fragments covered the floor while a yellow haze tinted the walls from multiple years of smoke. Naomi got the idea to climb onto the large stack of bricks, to get a better view. Sneaking over to the neat stack of bricks would be fairly difficult if she had to maneuver around all these people and children.

"What do you mean not on the list? My invitation is right here, plain as day!"

_Oh damn. _ Naomi bit her bottom lip and turned towards the front door. She knew that voice anywhere. She just didn't understand why he was here.

"I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Smith. But this event is for couples who have already have a child under their custody."

"Nonsense! Our child is already in there. Let us through."

Naomi silently watched as The Doctor argued to the bouncer and Clara was peeking her head to see inside the factory. _That's why you didn't want to come, because you would already be here. Paradox, pair-a-docs. Clever, but tremendously unamazing._ She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms at The Doctor's humor.

Just before the bouncer pushed The Doctor and Clara away, the younger Naomi ran up to Clara and wrapped her arms around her legs. Clara flinched, but quickly placed comforting hands on the young Naomi's back.

"Mommy, what are you doing? They said it will start soon!"

"Sorry, dear. We, uh, had a little trouble getting our invitation," she answered, more to the bouncer than to the little girl.

"Well, c'mon!" the light brown haired girl grabbed Clara's hand and pulled her inside, leaving The Doctor to glare at the bouncer with a warning. When the two time travelers entered the factory, the bouncer closed the door, but remained outside.

At the end of the short hallway, the cheerful girl stopped and looked at Clara and The Doctor. Clara was still holding her hand.

"Why did you help us?" she asked the young girl.

"It's a party, everyone should be allowed to attend." Young Naomi answered with a strong grin and bright blue eyes.

The Doctor narrowed his eyes and quickly looked her up and down; examining her. "Do I know you?"

"I don't know you, so no," Young Naomi replied in a matter-of-factly tone.

"Your logic is flawed."

"Doctor! She helped us inside, at least say 'thank you!'"

"We would have found another way in!"

"It's alright." The cheeky girl cut in, "My brothers never say it anyways. But, I can tell you are grateful." Young Naomi let go of Clara and ran into the crowd, just barely missing Naomi in the process. Naomi jumped out of the way to avoid touching her younger self; she had a strong hunch that if she came in contact with her prior self that something bad could happen. Maybe a rip in time in space; or an actual paradox? One thing was certain, she had to stay close, but not too close to her younger counterpart.

Her attention was drawn back to Clara and The Doctor; they waited at the edge of the hallway and surveyed the crowd. Naomi dared to get closer to the pair, taking short breaths only when necessary. With her back glued to the wall, Naomi listened to the two talking to each other.

"What are we looking for?"

"Anything out of the ordinary."

"Yeah, um, isn't it out of the ordinary that a 'party' be held in a brick factory?" Clara crossed her arms and continued to scan the crowd of parents.

"Are you sure? You lot hold festivities on rooftops and in the middle of a ocean. Brick factory doesn't seem too odd."

"It is, if that factory is in the center of an abandoned neighborhood, on the outskirts of a town."

"Well, then, I guess we have to keep a close eye for additional abnormalities." The Doctor held his stare into the crowd while Clara dropped her arms in a snicker.

"We won't learn anything just standing here."

Clara took a step away from The Doctor and blended into the crowd of adults. Naomi immediately lost sight of Clara, so diverted her attention back to the Scottish alien. She flinched almost instantly when she realized that he was looking directly at her. Naomi clammed up and held her breath. With wide eyes and a racing heart, Naomi prayed that he couldn't see any of her red hair; she hoped that she was able to conceal it so no one could see it. In further inspection, she noticed that he wasn't looking at her, but near her. His eyes were darting around her, almost as he if was searching for something. Surely he couldn't see her? Naomi was certain that her hair was covered; so how could he know she was there? Was her breath too loud, was it possible that her heard her frantic heart? _He might be an alien, but I doubt that he has super sonic hearing._

Taking a gamble, Naomi lowered her head, to better conceal her red hair, and took as quiet steps away from The Doctor as possible. After seeing The Doctor as concise as he was, she knew that it wasn't her Doctor. This one reminded her of their first adventure, saving Princess Lua. He was harsh and more on the demanding side. Clara seemed to handle him well, she also seemed younger. Naomi realized that they might be earlier versions of her Doctor and the Clara she met after waking up from the coma. As she carefully maneuvered her way to the stack of bricks, Naomi silently cursed time traveling; she knew this 'party' was going to get complicated very fast, considering it brought The Doctor and Clara here. He's always prone to trouble.

Climbing the pallets of bricks normally wouldn't be too difficult with the staggered chunks missing, almost like stairs, however reaching the top of the pile while not being detected was another story. She took soft steps and kept her arms extended forward, in case she had to grab onto something. Naomi reached a good vantage point and eased herself to sit with her legs dangling off of the edge which overlooked the stage. She was able to quickly find Clara exchanging words with a small circle of parents, slowly getting information, while The Doctor kept to the back, attempting to hide in plain sight. Her next target was to find her younger self and with the majority of the crowd being adults, finding a short little girl amongst the hips of the taller people was going to take more time. Alas, she did not have an adequate amount of time before the lights dimmed and the makeshift stage was illuminated by a set of halogen flood lights.

The crowd immediately hushed and focused their attention to the stage. While everyone ceased moving to look upon the stage, Naomi quickly glanced over the crowd to see if she could spot her younger counterpart. She found that Clara was standing next to her own parents, it seemed as though that the three had been talking. It was still an awkward sight seeing both parents together; it definitely didn't help that Clara was with them. _I wonder how long after this event did my dad wait before leaving._ Naomi pulled her eyes from her parents and Clara to The Doctor, he was still leaning against the back wall, but this time he was looking down. She strained her eyes to just barely see the top of a child's head. Was it her younger self? It was nearly impossible to tell from the distance and lack of light.

"I want to thank you all for attending tonight," an ear piercing haptic feedback echoed from the speakers and microphone. Everyone, including the invisible Naomi, covered their ears and winced in pain. The man standing on the stage stepped back from the speakers and cleared his throat. "Sorry, hard to tell with technology." He adjusted his tie and continued, "As I was saying, thank you for attending. Your cooperation for this study is greatly appreciated. However, I must remind you that this," the man held up a handful of papers paperclipped together, "Is a legal binding contract. Voluntary? Yes. But, this contract cannot be found invalid unless all sides agree to it. And seeing how only two of the three positions are present tonight, any attemptions or claims of an invalid contract will result in termination."

A legal binding contract? Termination? This was starting to sound more of a business meeting instead of any type of party. Even law students' parties were more lively than this. The man mentioned something about a study; Naomi got the feeling that this was a ruse from the start.

"Now, parents. I need you to find your child. There should only be one kid per couple."

Instinctively, she looked towards The Doctor. A few adults move out of the way to allow Naomi to see the child by him; it was her younger self. She narrowed her eyes to see him touch his brow. Had she made a remark about his eyebrows? That was the first thing she had called him when they first met; Eyebrows. Naomi couldn't deny that the young brown haired girl wasn't her now. She smiled, remembering their first encounter and how he demanded coffee from her. Some things never change.

Young Naomi walked away from The Doctor and found her parents. Clara had emerged from the crowd and stood next to The Doctor. It appeared that they were talking. However, there was no way of knowing what they were saying.

"Everyone accounted for? Great." The man on the stage grabbed everyone's attention again. "Now, exchange farewells, and have your child proceed down these stairs." He gestured to a dark stairwell that led downwards; Naomi hated dark stairs. They always lead to trouble.

The couples began to stir and coax their children. Nearly all of them were hugging their kid. Naomi's parents included. Seeing a few brave kids confidently walk away from their parents and down the stairs so quickly made Naomi believe that her younger self, with her ambitious smile and outgoing personality, would rush down the stairs before she could follow. The invisible girl climbed down the bricks and eased herself to the ground. Vaguely remembering where her parents were, Naomi brushed past a few hugging couples and reached her comforting parents. It was strange enough to see both mother and father together, but actually witnessing them hugging her younger counterpart was a bit too far'fetched for her. Naomi was close enough to hear the three speak.

"Everything will be alright," her mother said with a tight hug.

"Okay," the young girl replied, obviously confused.

"You'll be fine," her father joined on the hug.

"I know."

"We'll see you soon. Don't worry."

"I won't."

"Do as they say, and everything will be okay."

"Okay, Dad."

This scene seemed very familiar to Naomi. It felt like her mind was trying to remember this particular moment, but it couldn't quite recapture it. She looked around and took in every little detail, attempting to jump start her memories. The stage made a creaking noise wherever the man stepped and the buzz of parents offering terms of love to their children was all too familiar. It was if something was preventing her from remembering what happened next. Naomi was tempted to rak her hair back, but she quickly reminded herself of her hood and reclined her hand.

"I don't want to be last!" Young Naomi broke away from her parents, only for her mother to hold onto her thin shoulders.

"We'll be waiting," her mother gave a weak smile and squeezed her shoulders.

"Okay! Geez, let me go," Naomi watched as her younger counterpart wiggled from her parents grip and walk towards the stairs. Whatever was down those ominous steps wasn't good, and her parents knew what it was.

She swore under her breath at her parents for lying to her, and chased after Young Naomi. Without hesitation, Naomi followed herself down into darkness. She was careful to keep a distance, even though it was rather difficult because more children were walking down the stairs. _I absolutely hate stairs._ Reluctantly, Naomi kept as quiet as she could and blindly stepped down the stairs. As she got closer to the end, the noise from the upper floor seemed to be drowned out and the carefree, anxious and happy children seemed to realize that something serious was about to happen. They remained silent as they unknowingly followed an invisible girl downward. _Was is it always stairs? Can't it be an elevator for a change?_

The group of children, whose ages varied from nine to twelve, and Naomi, reached the bottom floor. It wasn't made out of the same concrete as the stairs; it was smooth and cold. When the last child stepped onto the smooth ground, a stunningly bright light switched on. They all winced and shielded their eyes. Naomi immediately pushed her back against a wall, to avoid interacting with more kids. Through flickering eyelids, Naomi was able to see that the room was covered in long white tiles, from the floor to the walls. She could just see glass rooms with strange looking equipment and exam tables and chairs. It didn't take Naomi long to recognize alien tech on the tables. She forced her eyes to open wide enough for her to see what was in each glass room. Down the center hallway were people in science coats and had clipboards.

_Oh Jesus, they're going to experiment on them! Who the hell does that to children?! _ Naomi bit her bottom lip and covered her mouth. Was she really experimented on? Was that why she lost her childhood memories? That was cruel, it was utterly unethical. What kind of monsters test on children? That was why that man mentioned contracts; so the parents couldn't back out at the last minute. What a rotten thing to do. She immediately began to scheme to rescue the children before any of them were tested upon. Of course, that would change the course of history; but time can be rewritten. She didn't care; she reasoned that at she would have to let her younger self lose her memories, otherwise it would cause a paradox. The Doctor brought her here to recover her memories; stopping the process in which she forgot them would be terrible. Naomi quickly came to terms with watching her younger self suffer, but the other kids won't have to undergo the experiments. She would make sure of that.


	23. Chapter 23

"Right, kiddos," a man with bold glasses approached the horrified group of children, "We've made this nice and simple putting the process in alphabetical order; just like at school. Now, we need Caesar Ales to step forward."

Naomi balled her fists and dug her nails back into the grooves of her palms; of course they would put some sort of order to this madness. Alphabetically, what a joke. She was now faced with a bigger problem; her last name was Winter, near the end. Could she wait that long to stop the experiments? Unfortunately, she would have to.

"Caesar, where are you?" the man asked again, looking at his clipboard.

_Stay hidden; at least until I figure something out. Damnit Doctor, why did you make me do this?_

A frightened boy rose a shaky hand just above his head. Naomi narrowed her eyes at him for an unknown warning. _Idiot._ The boy was one of the older kids, about twelve. He had shaggy hair and pale white.

"Present," he said, as if in school.

"Ah! There you are! Come along. We picked out something special for you just through here." As the trembling boy eased out of the mob of kids, the man gestured to the first glass room; on the table was a metal pyramid with curved corners. A symbol was faintly glowing in the middle of each side. Just by the markings, Naomi knew it was an alien artifact. "Right through here buddy."

"What are you going to do to me?" he piped up, glancing up to the man with fear-stricken eyes. Naomi knew that look. There was no mistaking that look. Just Caesar's eyes was enough to make her blood boil. That must have been the look she gave The Doctor after Ross was disintegrated.

"Nothing too serious, just need you to sit on the chair there and not move."

_You God damned monster._

Although he was scared out of his mind, Caesar mustered the courage to enter the glass room and climb into the exam chair. Either he was brave or he would blindly follow any authoritative figure; must kids were like that. However, the scientist didn't set a foot in the room. That wasn't a good sign. Instead, the man closed the door and looked to his fellow monsters to the rear.

"Lock it, Trisha," he instructed a woman.

A loud click sounded from the entrance of the glass room. Naomi and the kids flinched at the horrible sound. Suddenly, her focused was snapped from the door to Caesar in the chair; hidden wrist restraints curled around the bottom of his hands and held him in place. Those handcuffs also made a menacing echo.

"Subject One is secured. Eric, whenever you're ready," Trisha said.

"Okay, we'll start in three, two."

_I'm sorry Doctor. I can't-_

"One-"

"Wait," Trisha interrupted the countdown. She looked up from the monitor with a quizzical look, "The door is open."

"Trish, I can see that it isn't-" Eric glared at her and masked his annoyance with sarcasm.

"Not that one. The door from the stairs," she rolled her eyes and pointed to the passageway by the group of scared children.

Naomi raised an eyebrow and joined in with all of the kids by looking up the stairs. The light from the floor above was shining downward; then a shadow blocked the light and quickly bobbled away from the light. Someone was walking down the stairs. The invisible girl braced herself for the person to emerge from the concrete steps. _Another scientist?_ As the shadow got closer to the end, the children held their breath and backed away from the passage. Naomi was forced to stumble around them as they hid from the approaching stranger. She maneuvered around them and pressed her back against the wall next to the opening. The footsteps were getting louder as the person neared the end of the stairs.

"How did someone open it? Only four people have access to that code!" A different scientist said. He was looking over Trisha's shoulder to examine the monitor.

"Well, now five people have it."

_Oh thank God._

With fast steps and an authoritative demeanor, Naomi's Scottish alien appeared from the stairs. The Doctor jumped on to the ground floor and immediately pulled his sonic screwdriver from his inner coat pocket. He flicked it in the glass room and pressed the button. With the familiar buzzing, the screwdriver released Caesar's restraints and unlocked the glass door.

"Woah, woah! What the hell are you doing?!" Eric held up his hands for The Doctor to stop.

"Interfering," he replied confidently.

"Yes, I can see that. Why?"

The Doctor scoffed at the question; he rolled his eyes and took a short glance around. "What kind of stupid question is that?" He walked past the frightened kids and narrowed the gap between him and the group of scientists.

Behind The Doctor, Clara emerged from the stairs and went directly to the children. She knelt down to their eye level and gently led them to the passageway. "Hey, okay. Time to go. Your parents are waiting upstairs." Slowly, the kids began to file back up the stairs. "You too buddy," she waved Caesar from the chair and glass room. He jumped off and ran back with the remaining children.

"Can we get security down here," Trisha spoke into a small radio for assistance.

"No need. Your muscle upstairs has long gone," The Doctor gestured Trisha to be quiet.

"What the hell is this? Who the hell are you?" Eric demanded. "You can't take those kids!"

"A rescue, The Doctor, and yes, I can!" The Doctor glared at Eric, leaning forward to intimidate him.

Naomi remained as still as she could as the children ran past her and back up the stairs. _You cut that entirely too close, Doctor._ Clara was leading the kids away while The Doctor was lecturing the scientists; they worked pretty good together.

"No, you can't! Trisha," Eric turned to her and pointed a stern finger at her, "Seal that door before any of them get out."

Trisha immediately began pushing buttons, however The Doctor was faster; he flicked his screwdriver at the panel and a burst of sparks shot from underneath it. Trisha stepped away quickly from the small electrical emissions.

"What did you do?! Stop that!" Eric smacked The Doctor's hand downward, but it was too late. The panel was shut down and the controls were broken. "These kids are under my authority! It's in the contracts-"

"What? The contracts their parents signed?" He interrupted. The Doctor turn to Eric again, and stared daggers at him. "They didn't agree to be experimented on."

"That doesn't matter! Their parents gave us consent to perform our necessary tests. Until they turn eighteen, their parents control what they do." Eric held up his clipboard to indicate that the parents had signed for them to test on them.

"Oh, shut up!" The Doctor scoffed at the signatures. "Nobody's getting tested on today."

"Doctor," Clara poked her head from the stairs, "That's all of them."

"Hey, bring them back!" Eric demanded.

"What did I say about shutting up?"

"I'm getting HQ on this," Trisha said, walking through the silent scientists and into a back room.

"Oh please no," The Doctor replied with his overly sarcastic tone, "I'm positively terrified."

"As you should," Eric piped up again.

"Correction," The Doctor put his sonic screwdriver in his coat pocket and straightened himself, "The only thing I should be terrified of is the person with a cloaking device in this room."

_What!_

Everyone suddenly had a somber expression. Clara gave The Doctor a questionable look and crossed her arms over her chest.

"How do you know-" she began to ask.

"Because they are using a light shield aura. I felt it right next to me earlier. And I can feel it in this room." He looked around and took gentle steps to pinpoint Naomi's location.

_No way. He couldn't feel the watch._ Naomi denied his accusations.

He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. In a snap, he used his hand to point directly at Naomi. "There!"

_Oh damn!_ Her heart skipped a beat as she held in her gasp. All she could do was bite her lip to withhold her urge to outburst.

Clara raised an eyebrow and looked to where he was pointing. "Are you sure?"

"Definitely," he answered with a dead serious expression.

"This man is insane," Eric muttered.

The Doctor began to stare Naomi down, as if he knew where exactly to look. He took a few steps towards her, narrowing his eyes. She panicked. So, she immediately pushed Clara to the side and ran up the stairs.

_What the hell?! Why didn't he tell me that he could sense the damn watch!_

"Go after them!" she heard The Doctor demanded from the lower floor.

"They're invisible!"

"Well obviously they went upstairs!"

_Jesus. Oh God._ Naomi skipped up some stairs to reach the top faster. She could hear frantic footsteps running behind her. _Next chance I get, I'm smacking him._ Once she got to the upper floor, she couldn't stop herself enough so she ran into a few kids. Naomi rolled and pivoted her feet so she wouldn't knock them over. Some of the parents gasped as the kids were randomly pushed and shoved to one side. As the audience watched the invisible girl stumble and adjust herself, Naomi was able to remain upright and on her feet. With a little effort, she pushed herself through the kids and weaved her way around the parents.

She slowed to a speedy walking pace to carefully maneuver around the adults. Hoping to lose The Doctor and Clara within the crowd, Naomi attempted to relax her heart so she wouldn't breath too hard next to anyone. As she covered her mouth with her undershirt, to prevent anyone feeling her racing breath, she compressed her body as much as she could so she wouldn't run into the parents. She was able to wiggle her way to the back wall, praying that all of the bodies that separated her and The Doctor would throw off his senses. Leaning against the wall to catch her breath better, Naomi found her parents. They were huddled together and she could just see their lips moving. However, their faces were wrong. While the other parents seemed relieved and grateful, they wore an expression of disappointment. To appease her curiosity, she took steady breaths and sneaked over behind them to listen in.

"He's my boss and he asked for Naomi specifically. If she doesn't go through with this, we all suffer."

"Why can't we just go? Take her and go far away?" her mother pleaded.

"Look where I work, Lauren!" he snapped at her with a hushed voice, "I just got off the phone with him, he gave the alternative; Naomi for the void of the other kids. All these families are involved now."

The invisible girl strained her ears to pick up all she could from her parents' conversation. With closed eyes, she realized that this dialogue between her parents was familiar. She found herself recalling every word. Almost as if she heard this before.

"That's not fair to her-"

"Would you rather all of these kids suffer or just one?"

"But that 'just one' is our daughter. My only daughter."

"Lauren, my mind is made up. And so is Director Herend's."

"Mom? Dad?"

All three adults looked to the source of the voice. The little bruised brown haired girl in the sundress was standing close by. Her once cheerful eyes were stricken with fear and tears. The invisible girl took a step back to avoid her gasp hitting the ears of her parents. _I remember this. They were fighting about me. Just like in the car ride here and at home. _

Her father glanced at Lauren, then snapped back to the young Naomi. He immediately grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the crowd.

"Och! Daddy!" she said as he led her from the reuniting families and towards the front door. Lauren automatically followed after them, hoping to prevent whatever was about to happen. Naomi was about to rush after them, but then she remembered that this was suppose to occur. She could recall the tight grip of her father's hand around her wrist and the occasionally yank while her mother was hot on their trails. Naomi stood stone still and more of her memories came back to her. Her own life was happening right in front of her, and she couldn't do anything to stop it. _At least the other kids are safe._ She reasoned with herself. This had to happen. Time could be rewritten. Not this time.

Resisting the urge to follow her younger self and parents, Naomi found herself standing in the corner, watching as her younger counterpart be dragged away. She felt numb because she couldn't quite remember what happened next. It scared her, but she knew that this was it. This was the event that led her to losing her memories. All she could do was silently observe her father pull her out of the brick factory and her mother slamming the door shut behind her. After that door closed, Naomi couldn't remember what happened next. She came to the conclusion that she didn't want to know. Instead, she would wait for her Doctor to return and retrieve her. If this was why she lost her memories, she could live with it; knowing she saved the other kids.

_It's worth it._

* * *

><p><strong>(( Sorry for the small hiatus! I wasn't too sure where I wanted to take the story, but I finally figured it out. <strong>

**Thanks for the patience :)))**


	24. Chapter 24

**((WARNING: mentions of death and slight physical abuse. It probably doesn't count as abuse, but just in case))**

The old lights hanging over head began to flicker for a moment, then completely shut off. Naomi, along with the parents and frightened children, glanced upwards to question the sudden black out in worried voices. She could hear the noisy chatter all around her as she noticed the stage lights spark on. In awe silence, everyone turned their attention to the makeshift stage; The Doctor was standing in the middle, looking cross as ever. With dark, narrowed eyes and pinned eyebrows, he held up his hands for the confused crowd to be quiet. _What is he doing?_ Naomi crossed her arms and glared at him, searching for any sign of his hastily put-together plan.

"Shut up and listen." He demanded the crowd to remain silence.

_You always had a way with words._ She grinned at him, however he couldn't see her.

"This is the crucial part. Don't panic," he lowered his hands and softened his expression. "There is someone among us. Someone unseen." The parents began to whisper to each other and hold their children tighter. "I'm looking for that 'someone'."

"Who are you?" a man in the crowd shouted.

"The man who just freed your children. And I thought I said to shut up."

"Doctor," Naomi could barely tell that Clara had said that. The flowy haired woman stepped onto the stage and said something hushed to him. She couldn't read lips, but she figured that Clara was telling him to relax.

The Doctor slightly nodded his head to her and took a step back. Clara turned to the chatty crowd and clapped her hands together.

"Alright everyone. I do need you to be quiet for just one moment." Reluctantly, the confused parents became silent again. "What my associate was trying to say," she emphasised the title she gave The Doctor; Naomi saw that he cringed a little as she referred to him, "Someone is here who isn't supposed to be. We need your help to find them."

Parents and children alike muttered to each other in uncertainty; however, Clara interrupted them before they got too loud.

"All we need you lot to do is stand as still as possible."

_Why?_

Just as a mother in the front began to question Clara's request, The Doctor lifted up a sledgehammer and used his might to swing it. The iron of the heavy tool smashed into a support beam, cracking and breaking it instantly. Overhead, the wooden frames holding up the ceiling shifted violently. The remaining beams kept the shingles in place, but the frames brushed off a heavy dose of clay dust. The mist fell on top of everyone off of the stage, covering them with a layer of red. A few people coughed out small amounts with the children covered their faces. Even though Naomi was in the back corner, she was pelted with the red dust.

"History lesson." The Doctor tossed the sledgehammer aside and stepped back into the spotlight. "This factory was famous for its deep red pigment in its bricks. However, in 1985 was shut down because it was discovered that the heavy use of the dye was staining everything it touched, from clothes to hair. Skin to nails. Years of unstirred brick dust from the shafts will hold the same result."

_Oh damn._

The Doctor was scanning the crowd, looking for her. Unfortunately, she realized his plan too late. As the crowd brushed the mist off of themselves, Naomi made a mad dash for the front door. That grabbed Clara's eye.

"There! Doctor, he's in the back!"

_Oh damn!_

Naomi dashed behind the dusty adults and messy children. She ran down the short hallway and quickly reached the door. _Jesus Christ, open!_ She shook her head to leave a small pile of brick dust by her feet.

"By the door!"

She heard Clara shout to him. Luckily, she unlocked the door and swung it open. With long strides and racing heart, Naomi rushed out of the factory and out onto the sidewalk. Even though she didn't look back, the once-invisible girl knew that The Doctor and Clara were right behind her. In a panicked state, Naomi stumbled off of the sidewalk and into the middle of the street, completely unsure which direction to run.

"In the street!" The Doctor declared from the threshold.

Before she could come to a conclusion, something large rammed into her. With a tense body and confused mind, she lost her footing and slammed into the asphalt. She wasn't hit hard, but it was enough to knock the wind out of her as the car drove past. Using her hands, Naomi was able to break her fall a little; at least save her face from a serious case of road rash. The corner of the headlight had collided with Naomi's hip, causing her to twist onto her stomach. As the speeding driver zipped by her, the tires of the car somehow missed her arms and legs.

While her body hit the ground hard, Naomi forced herself to keep her eyes open, so she could stay awake. She heard Clara gasp loudly as the car accelerated and drove down the street. Through her colorful eyes, Naomi watched as the world began to spin. Her head was pounding and her brain seemed to be in overdrive, trying to push herself to get up and run. She knew interacting with this Doctor would be dangerous; that's why her Doctor couldn't come with her. Naomi was afraid that she wouldn't unintentionally reveal something or do something wrong, so staying away from him and Clara was the only way to prevent that. Of course, she couldn't do anything when her body was pulsating with pain and sore from a hit-and-run driver.

"Who the hell hit me?" she muttered, attempting to focus her mind and stop the spinning.

"Oh my God. Are you okay?!"

Clara knelt by Naomi, trying to help the invisible girl.

"Clara! Get away! Not until we know who we're dealing with!" The Doctor ordered her. _I feel the love Doctor._

His companion snapped her head and glared at him, "Regardless of who his is, he just got hit by a car! I'm not leaving him."

"He could be dangerous!"

"Doctor, you're dangerous!" she growled at The Doctor. Naomi shut her eyes and concentrated on listening to them. "Yet, I'm still by your side." There was a bitter silence between the two before Clara rested a gentle hand on Naomi's shoulder. "Say something; anything."

Naomi took short intakes of air as she tried to think of something simple to say without giving away her identity. "She's gone," Naomi whispered.

"What? Who's gone?"

She wasn't sure how to describe her younger self, or even if it was relevant to them anymore. There was nothing more they could do to stop whatever was to happen next. "Sundress."

"Who are you?" The Doctor asked with a softer tone, but Naomi could still feel him glaring daggers at her invisible body.

_Curiosity killed the cat._ Naomi warned him.

"What did you do to my daughter?!"

All three time travelers' attention was grabbed by a woman crying out. Naomi pried her eyes open to get an idea of you was screaming. With the world spinning at a slower pace, she could just make out her mother on the side of the factory. Three more figures were by her, along with a shorter one, but Naomi couldn't clearly see who they were.

"What was in that injection? What did you put inside my daughter?!" Lauren's voice was laced with worry as she demanded answers from the other three figures.

_Mom, it's okay. I'll be fine._

"You consented to the procedure," one of the man said.

"No, my husband did! I would never allow this to happen to any of my children!"

"The procedure is over. Please report any abnormal behavior to the number we have provided for you."

The three figures turned and walked away from Lauren and younger Naomi. The girl laying in the street was losing her vision and her mind was shutting down. _I'm fine, really._ She sighed loudly and had a small smile spread across her face as she fell asleep. Honestly, it was more of a nap. Not much time had passed between Naomi going under consciousness and being awaken suddenly. Nothing touched her body physically, but an echoing sound boomed in her ears. As the deafening sound bounced in Naomi's head, it triggered her mind to jump-start.

Everything rushed back to her. All of her previous childhood friends, prior school field trips, her classroom settings and household decor. The details of her pet guinea pig and the furniture in her room flooded her head. She could remember all of the cartoons she used to watch and all of the video games her older brothers played. Even her first encounter with The Doctor. All of her once lost memories snapped back to her. Her childhood life seemed to flash before her eyes; she could see herself running in her P.E. class, playing sports with Ash, painting with her mother, reading in her room, family dinners, holidays and vacations across the country, visiting her grandparents' grave, the occasional attendance at church, slumber and birthday parties, and the extended family meetings. She remembered that she had an uncle. A niece and a nephew. For the first time, Naomi had her memories back.

However, the sound was incredibly distinguishable. A trademark that nearly anyone on the planet could identify. A gunshot.

With a sore body and newly opened mind, Naomi used her weak arms to push herself to her knees. Her colorful eyes were still hazy and she fought against the urge to lay on the ground and continue to sleep. As her body insisted it needed rest, Naomi rolled her head and focused her vision to the source of the gunshot. She could see The Doctor on his knee, leaning over a figure on the ground. Clara was holding onto Young Naomi. The three men had disappeared.

Taking a deep breath, Naomi clenched her fists and eased herself onto unsteady feet. She took small and uneasy steps towards the scene next to the factory. As she got closer, Naomi's vision was returning to her and her mind was accepting her will to stay awake. Naomi walked onto the sidewalk and used the wall of the factory to lean on and observe.

"Oh God. Oh God, God, no," Clara was whispering to herself while covering Young Naomi's face in her stomach. "Please no."

Finally, Naomi knew exactly what happened; she remembered that one of the men had shot her mother because she lunged after the man in the middle. When she was younger, Clara was there to cover her sight of her lifeless mother on the ground; this time, Naomi was left to stare at her mother. She couldn't bring herself to look away. The Doctor was next to her, his head close to Lauren's. Naomi felt her body relax the longer she stared at her mother. She knew that this was how her mother really died; there was no mistaking it. This was the second time she witnessed it. No matter how many times she watched this scene, it never quite felt real.

"How could they? Ju- just leave her here?" Clara was clearly holding back tears.

Naomi figured that The Doctor would answer her, but he didn't.

"Oh God. What do we do? Doctor?"

He still didn't answer.

"What do we do? Doctor!"

Finally, he reclined away from Lauren. The Doctor held a grim expression as he glanced up at Clara. They exchanged a look before his dark eyes shot over to Naomi. The invisible girl didn't notice him jump up and walk to her. Her mind was lost in a void as her eyes rested on her mother's. As she was in a trace, The Doctor bared his teeth and quickly grabbed a hold of her forearms. With an incredible grip and brute force, The Doctor pushed her against the factory. Naomi was immediately brought back to reality by his strong grip and fierce eyes.

"Why?!" The Doctor shouted at her. "If I wasn't fixated on you, I could have saved her! She would have lived! You caused that woman's life to end; right in front of her own daughter! This could have been prevented!" Although he couldn't tell where Naomi's eyes were, she stared at him, absolutely horrified. She couldn't speak, didn't know what to say. He was blaming her for her mother's murder. Wasn't it bad enough that she had to live it twice in one lifetime?

Through terrified eyes, and shaky hands, Naomi carefully turned the watch off. The invisibility cloak vanished around her and she was revealed to The Doctor. His dark eyes studied her face and quickly recognized the scar on her jawline. Slowly, he loosened his grip on her forearms and altered his threatening expression into one she couldn't easily identify. The Doctor dropped his arms to his side and took a step back. Naomi held her horrified gaze at him. This was the second time that she could honestly say that The Doctor scared her past the point of words. She didn't know what he was capable of, especially after that outburst of anger. It seemed to hurt her more because she had such strong feelings for him. Although she knew this was before he came to terms with his emotions for her, Naomi wasn't sure if she could look at him the same again. The throbbing on her forearms led her to believe that he had felt bruises; it wasn't intentional, but she now knew that he had hurt her. In more ways than one.

The two silently stared at each other while Clara coaxed the younger Naomi down from a panic attack. After whispering calming phrases to her, Clara looked at The Doctor.

"Doctor. You once told me you had to erase a close friend's memory so she could live."

The Doctor took a moment to meet Clara's concerned gaze instead of Naomi's terrified one. "Yes," he quietly said.

"Do it. Do that to her. She doesn't, _can't_ go on after witnessing that."

"It isn't as simple as that," The Doctor had dropped his confidence and spoke just above a whisper. "I knew what I was looking for and her brain was fully developed. If I did that to her, it's more than likely I would erase her entire memory." He let his eyes land on the ground, avoiding both Naomi and Clara's eyes.

"Please, Doctor," she continued to plead, "Look at her. She is barely standing on her own. Don't let her remember her mother like this."

He glanced back to the older Naomi. The Doctor slightly narrowed his eyes, as if he was searching for something in her own. The red haired girl barely blinked as he seemed to stare into her soul. Finally, he broke his eye contact and walked over to Clara and the younger Naomi. "I owe her much more than that."

The Doctor knelt down to be face to face with Naomi's younger counterpart. He gently put his hands on her head and closed his eyes. After a moment, the ten year old girl shut her eyes and swayed into The Doctor's arms. She was unconscious. He caught her and easily picked her up while straightening himself.

Naomi pushed the hood off of her head and silently watched as The Doctor erased her memories. Was that why she had originally thought her mother died from a sickness in a hospital? Did he change how her mother died because he hurt her? That could be a possibility.

The red haired girl dropped her gaze from The Doctor, Clara, and her younger self to regain her composure. Her entire body cried out in pain or soreness. All she wanted was to sleep and let her subconscious deal with this roller coaster of emotions. Because, quite frankly, this was too much for her. Around the corner, Naomi could vaguely hear the hum of the TARDIS landing. She honestly didn't know what to do next. Because this was in his past, The Doctor had to live with the guilt of blaming her; she wasn't ready to confront him about this event. However, she couldn't walk away; she would be stranded in 1999. For a moment, she actually considered staying in the past.

Taking a deep breath and exhaling a long sigh, Naomi avoided Clara and this Doctor's eyes. Instead, she kept her head down and walked away. She could hear the two talking, but she wasn't concerned about what they were saying. With a grim expression and dirty clothes, Naomi stepped around the corner of the abandoned brick factory. She quickly found the TARDIS and pushed the door inward to open it. With quiet steps, Naomi entered the time machine and gentle closed the door. Her head was still facing downward as she walked passed the main console and straight to the stairs that led to the library. The Doctor didn't say anything to her; he bowed his head to avoid her guilty eyes. She sat on the first steps, wrapped her knees to her chest, and leaned her head against the railing.

The Doctor had pushed a lever and turned a knob and the TARDIS began to hum its familiar sound as he flew away from the brick factory. After an easy landing, The Doctor held onto the edge of the mainframe and dropped his head again. Naomi knew that he brought her back to her apartment, but she didn't want to leave. She actually wanted to discuss what happened; which is rare for her. She's never been in a serious relationship where she dreaded talking with the other person, but knew it was necessary. This was going to be difficult.

She didn't know how to start, so The Doctor cleared his throat to get her attention. "You'll be late for work if you don't leave now."

"I'm not going to the warehouse."

"What about your probation? You could lose your title-" he was quoting what she had told him before. She appreciated his concern for her day job, but she couldn't do much of anything after watching her mother die for a second time.

"I'll call out sick. If they fire me, they fire me," she shrugged her sore shoulders, "I'm not in any condition to work today."

The Doctor seemed to nod in agreement, but didn't say it. She lowered her blank stare from him to a random point on the metal floor. The Doctor took cautious steps to her, unsure of her hidden emotions. She barely moved as he approached her. He slid onto the step next to her; Naomi could feel how tense he was just sitting there. She still avoided him with her eyes.

"Show me."

"Show you what?"

"Your arms," he rubbed his face then faced Naomi,

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

"Doctor, really-"

"Naomi," he put a hand on her elbow; she unintentionally flinched it out of his hand. She realized what her body did and quickly looked at him. The Doctor's eyes were filled with fear and self-disappointment. Naomi felt more guilty; she didn't want him to feel any worse than he did, but she couldn't help that she was still jumpy from being hit by a car.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I understand if you don't trust me," he looked to the floor and fiddled with his hands as a nervous habit. "And if you want me to leave. I'm dangerous."

Naomi took a moment to watch his hands move in a random pattern. It seemed like he was playing with something, but she wasn't too concerned about it. She just tried to piece a decent response to him.

"Anyone could be dangerous."

"Me more than others."

"Then I guess I'll have to make sure you aren't."

"Do you know what you're saying? I hurt you; why do you want to stay?"

"Because," she released her tight grip around her knees and slipped a hand in The Doctor's, "I know you'll never do it again."

"How do you know that?"

"My mom was the one who asked you to protect me. You promised her that you would. That's what she told you for her dying wish?"

The Doctor looked at Naomi in shock; as if there was no way she could have known that. It was true, she didn't hear what the two were saying, but every memory of her mom led her to believe that she was right.

"Did you hear her?"

"No, but I knew her. That's also why you brought me here during the wedding. You mentioned the vow. And only a parent or close family member would ask such a thing." Naomi leaned her heavy head onto The Doctor's shoulder, staring into nothing.

"I'm not a good man; I've kept this from you."

"All good men have secrets. To protect his loved ones," she reminded him.

"Yes, but good men don't hurt his loved ones."

"I was invisible; how could have you've known it was me? By my breathing pattern? Heart rate?"

He lightly scoffed at the idea she presented him. "I don't want to hurt you again."

"Then don't."

"Naomi Winter," he sighed as if a five ton weight was lifted off of his back, "Supervisor at a surveillance warehouse."

"Doctor, an alien with a box."

"It's about time you had one," he readjusted their hands and let the small object he was toying with fall into her hand. She pulled it away and looked to see what it was. A small silver key was laying in her palm. "Should have given long ago. But, I didn't know how you would react after, regaining your memories."

"What, you thought I would throw the key away? Or give it to-" Before she could finish her thought, she had a sudden realization. Naomi straightened herself and wrapped her fingers around the TARDIS key. "Oh damn."

"Mh?"

"I just remembered; my dad works for Area 51."

* * *

><p><strong>((Since it's been a while, here's another chapter. Not quite like the others, but had to be done, for reasons that will be presented later on. Sorry if the ending was a bit hard to take in. <strong>

**Oh, and thanks for all the lovely reviews so far. You all are fantastic!))**


End file.
